Unmasked Intentions
by HesitantNerd
Summary: 5th year Veronica Smith was having a bit of an identity crisis, probably because her last name wasn't actually Smith. She was an orphan that never knew her parents. Years full of escaped mass murderers, conflicting friends, and new revelations about who she really is, make for her most brutal time yet. Part 1/3.
1. Returning Home

**Chapter 1: Returning Home**

"OoOoooo, I think you two might be tanned," I said, grinning, "How was Egypt?"

I sat in a train compartment with my three best friends, Angelina Johnson, and Fred and George Weasley, our other friends Alicia Spinnet and Lee Jordan were coming soon, but right now it was just the four of us.

"Yeah it was pretty wicked, loads of old tombs and stuff, we even tried to lock Percy into one of them." Fred said, laughing.

"Tried?" I asked, "Who stopped you?"

"Our other brother-" George started.

"Because you see, we have so many-" Fred continued.

"Except for Ginny, she's a sister," I rolled my eyes.

"Honorary brother" Angelina did too.

"To the point please?" Angelina snapped, losing her already barely there patience with the twins.

"Our older brother Bill took him out, he's fine, just hates us even more now," George said, before leaning back in the compartment seat, rummaging around his bag, and pulling out a portable gobstones game.

"Train leaves at eleven, right?" I asked, having a momentary lapse in thought, I shook my head at my own question, of course i knew what time the train left. "Nevermind-"

"Eleven." Fred said slowly, cutting me off and looking at me strangely, "It's been five years Vern, don't you think you should know this by now?"

I gave Fred a sour look, "It's also been five years of me telling you to call me Veronica, not the stupid nickname that the whole student body calls me that sounds like a leaf!"

"Sorry, but what?" Angelina said, referring to my leaf comment.

"Vern, Fern." I said comparing the two, I punctuated by holding my hands up like scales.

"Ah." Was all she said before looking back down at the quidditch magazine she was reading.

"You know Vern," George started, and god forbid, I could already feel my teeth start to grind before he even finished his sentence. "It's also been five years since we started calling you Vern, so in all fairness you should be used to it."

I got up from my seat, "Say one more word George Weasley, and I swear I won't talk to you for the next five years." I said before going and pulling open the door, "Prefect duties." I added to all their confused looks as to where I was going. And then I left, because I'll be damned if I was going to stick around for another round of 'Let's all make fun of Veronica because she's a prefect.'

And I _definitely_ wasn't sticking around for round two of that, 'Let's all make fun of Veronica _more_ because she's a prefect and will have to spend the next week gallivanting around with Graham Montague because they're partners'. I wasn't bitter at all.

I heard Fred and George laughing as I left, but then I heard Angelina's reliable 'Shut it!' and I knew they'd listen to her. As I walked down the aisle I noticed that the compartments were filling up rather fast, good thing I got here early then, and I only got here early because I had no choice. Mrs Cathrage, or Mrs Cabbage as I liked to call her, ran the orphanage that I grew up in, and to say she was nice, was like saying Fred and George wouldn't laugh before helping you up if you fell over.

She wasn't very nice, but she wasn't very mean, just strict, and definitely suspicious of McGonagall when she came to the orphanage when I was eleven.

I was snapped out of my thoughts as I was walking back to the prefects carriage when someone called my name. I whirled around to find Ron Weasley, Harry Potter, and Hermione Granger all sitting in a compartment with some sleeping man that looked way too old to be a student, probably in his early thirties. A teacher?

The person who'd spoken to me was Ron, happy chap that guy. "Hey Ron, what's up?" I asked stepping into the entryway to the compartment and leaning my shoulder up against the open door.

"Nothing much, I'm sure Fred and George already told you about Egypt though." He said looking rather miffed that his older brothers beat him to it again.

I grinned, "All they told me about it was that they stuck Percy in a tomb." I said smiling, twirling my red and gold tie around my finger.

"Yeah, but don't you get it Vern? That was the most interesting part." I had to laugh at that.

"So who's ratty tatty over here," I said, pointing with my boot clad foot to the guy sleeping in the corner.

"Professor R.J Lupin" Hermione said.

I looked at her confused, "How has he introduced himself if he's asleep, or did he just fall asleep now?" I asked them.

"No his name was on his case," Hermione said grinning a bit.

"Yeah he's been knocked out since we got here." Harry said, Ron nodding along.

"Shit" I muttered under my breath as the train started moving, I left the three third years looking alarmed as I rushed out for the prefect meeting I was now late to.

Luckily the carriage was right there and I ran in just as the head boy and girl were getting up. She gave me a reproachful look but I ignored it and sat down next to Montague.

It was very boring all of it. The only thing I could look forward too was being able to be out late at night, and being able to dock points. By the time the sun was setting I was almost wishing that I was in divination instead of here. Luckily, we were let go, but a very peculiar thing happened the second I stepped out the door, the train stopped.

I looked to the compartment to my left, and found it to be the one that Harry, Hermione and Ron were in I quickly went in there to look out the window beside Ron.

"What the hell?" I asked softly. Even though I wasn't directly talking to them, Harry, Ron, and Hermione all shrugged. Then something even stranger happened, the lights went out. It was night, and we were in the middle of nowhere, with no outside light. Which meant that it was dark, _really_ goddamn dark. I couldn't even see, so I quickly sat down in between Harry and the man, who still hadn't woken up yet, not wanting to fall over.

Before long the compartment door opened again and somebody fell on top of Hermione, I jumped a bit, startled, before realizing it was just Ginny. We had all made quite a ruckus when she came in though, and apparently it startled the man, or Lupin, as was his name. For Lupin all of a sudden was wide awake.

"Quiet!" He hissed, in a rather raspy voice. We all shut up and were just kind of sitting there, not knowing what to do. Then it got cold.

"Uh, anybody else just feel it drop ten degrees in here?" I said from the blackness, raising my hand like I was asking a question, not like anybody could see it.

I heard some murmurs of yes. It was so cold in here that I could see my own breath and my shirt and trousers did nothing against it, I could feel the goosebumps rising on my arms.

Then shit got weird.

I felt cold, so cold, as if my life and being and happiness, was being sucked out. I felt myself sink back into the seat, bad memories of when I broke my arm when I was eight coming back. I hadn't thought it that bad, but now it seemed worse, and it was coupled with fear, fear that had no base or reason.

Then it was gone, almost as if a light switched on, I felt normal again, and then a light did switch on, and the train started moving again.

"What was that?" Ron said in a shaky voice, I looked around, ok, not just me. Apparently everybody had felt some kind of disturbance at whatever that was.

"That was a dementor," Lupin said, frowning, "They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban. They were probably looking for Sirius Black."

"On a train?" Harry stammered, I looked at him, and noticed he looked horrible. "Why would a mass murderer be on a train going to a school?"

I found my voice, "Yeah, doesn't he have bigger fish to fry?" I asked, trying not to vomit as I said it. Lupin shrugged and gave us all some chocolate, I was confused as to why, but wasn't going to pass up the opportunity for some good chocolate, so, I ate it. Surprisingly, it worked. I felt a warm sensation go throughout my body, erasing the cold feeling that felt like it would be there forever.

The rest of the train ride was muted, and I left to go sit with Fred, George, and Angelina, who had been joined by Lee and Alicia while I was gone, we all talked about what happened and speculated why the ministry thought sending dementors on a train full of children was a good idea. Unsurprisingly, no one could come up with a good reason why by the time we reached the school.


	2. Be Careful

**Chapter 2: Be Careful**

"Come on, come on!" I said rather irritably to the first-years in front of Lee and I, Lee surprisingly being the other prefect, since of course it couldn't have been Fred or George. The first-years shuffled forward shyly, neither one wanting to go first.

"Let's just go, they'll follow us eventually." Lee muttered to me, I agreed, so we both just kind of turned around and started walking. Chancing a glance behind me, I noticed that they all were in fact following along behind us, albeit a few feet back.

Fred and George swiftly joined us from the giant crowd of Gryffindors going up the main staircase. "Babysitting firsties?" Fred taunted, Lee rolled his eyes and punched Fred in the arm as we made the trek up the five flights of stairs, the first-years weren't falling behind yet though, so that was something.

"Shit." I said when we reached the portrait hole.

"You don't have the password do you Vern?" Lee sighed, putting his hand on his forehead. Fred snorted.

"No, I don't, but look here comes head boy Percy- oh." I said surprised, "That whole prefects meeting on the train and I didn't even realize that the head boy was Percy."

"You didn't realize?" George said, appearing shocked, "But he lorded it over our heads the whole summer!"

"Yes well if you haven't realized yet, I wasn't exactly at your house this summer, probably because you were in Egypt!" Ever since Fred, George and I became friends in first year, I had stayed over at their house the whole summer, as kind of another child, Mrs Weasley felt bad that I lived in an orphanage I guess, and always tried to make up for it, she was lovely though, so I didn't mind too much.

"Oh, right."

"The password is _Fortuna Major_!" Percy's shrill voice pierced through all the talk, so that even the Fat Lady heard him and swung open.

"Sweet." I said and led the first years into the common room. "So, girls to your left, guys to your right, you'll get schedules tomorrow morning, and don't make too much noise." None of them moved an inch, they all just looked up at me, blinking, I sighed, "Go!"

"Look at you, being all professional." Fred mocked, coming up beside me, as the first-years scurried off.

"Shut up Fred."

Percy bustled over to us, looking startlingly professional in his perfectly ironed Hogwarts robes and shiny head boy badge. "Congratulations on becoming prefect Veronica, I'm sure you'll do amicably."

I tried not to laugh as I smiled at Percy, "Thank you." was all I was able to push out before he was bustling away again.

"Wow, you even got Percy's approval." Fred grinned.

"I'm going upstairs, Alicia and Angelina are already up there." I said and walked past Fred, who just muttered a quick goodnight, before joining Lee and George, who were currently screwing around in the corner by the fire.

"Great to be back, isn't it Vern?" Angelina said as I walked into our room and threw myself on my bed, the one closest to the big bay window.

I just grunted into my pillow.

"I'll take that as a yes."

 **111111111**

The first day of school dawned clear and bright, and the great hall was filled with light as I sat down to eat my breakfast.

"Potions first huh?" Alicia said from beside me, pointing to her schedule.

"What?" I asked, wondering where McGonagall had gone so that I could get mine.

"Don't worry McGonagall gave me yours too." Alicia said and put mine on the table beside my plate.

"Oh, cool." I grinned at her.

"We got potions first, then defence against the dark arts, you have that too?" Alicia said, motioning to herself and Angelina.

"Yeah we probably all have it."

"Oh yeah, last year before we can stop taking potions." Alicia nodded, "What electives are you taking though?" She asked, looking over my shoulder at my schedule.

"Arithmancy and ancient runes." I replied, taking some bacon off the table.

"Yuck." she made a face and went back to looking at her own schedule, I laughed.

"I like it."

"And I don't need to."

"True."

"What is my favourite person, other than myself and about ten other people, doing this fine morning?" These words invaded my left ear as Fred slid onto the bench beside me.

"Good morning to you too."

"You know what you should do?" Fred said, reaching into his bag and pulling out the worn out piece of parchment that over the years, Fred, George, Lee and I had come to love.

I grinned, "Ooh, what do you want me to do now."

"You have to find Lee and George, I'm not sure where they'll be yet, and because you and Lee are prefects, you need to block off the hallway where Filch's office is at both ends, and then when George gives you the signal, run." I frowned.

"Is this going to make me late for class?"

"It shouldn't?" But when Fred said it, it sounded more like a question.

"If Snape gives me detention, you're taking polyjuice, and going in my place."

"Excellent."

 **111111111**

Turns out George was stealing things from Filch's office, mainly old stuff that he had confiscated before, I wasn't late to potions, though I did find standing in a corridor pretending no one could go down it boring. The next few weeks were flying past, and like usual, I was getting immersed in my studies about magic. Even though I had no idea what blood status I really was, I grew up thinking I was a muggle, so when I came to Hogwarts, the only thing I wanted to do was to learn about magic. It explained so many things from when I was little, and it was this new, better, world than the one I had been living in. I even thought it was safer sometimes, until one night in mid November.

"Vern! Alicia!" We were walking to the library after dinner to research moonstones, when I heard George's voice behind me.

"Veronica!" I called out to him, forever trying to get people to call me by my full name.

He rolled his eyes, "No time for that Vern! You guys have to see this!" George grabbed both of our arms and started pulling us up a nearby staircase.

"Hey!" Alicia said, and we both yanked our arms away, "Just tell us!"

George sighed, but stopped his mad dash, "It's the Fat Lady, she's gone."

"What?!"

 **111111111**

The news of the fat lady's portrait being destroyed by Sirius Black travelled fast, and before long, the whole school was having an impromptu sleepover in the great hall.

"Ms. Smith, may I have a word?" The stern voice of Professor McGonagall cut into my conversation with Angelina as we were both getting into our sleeping bags.

"Uh, sure Professor?" I said and got up, motioning to Angelina to not wait up for me.

We walked over to the edge of the hall, far out of the reach of prying student ears, McGonagall wasted no time in delivering some rather revolutionary news, "Ms. Smith, we believe for some reason, that you may be in danger."

"What." I deadpanned, not really understanding what was happening.

McGonagall frowned, "As you know, Sirius Black slashed the painting of the Fat Lady while attempting to get into Gryffindor tower," I nodded, wondering what that had to do with me, "Well the Fat Lady has recounted her story to us, and says that he was yelling about looking for people."

I interrupted her, "People? Who could he be looking for? Another thirteen people to _murder_?"

" _No,_ we believe he was looking for you and Harry Potter."

I froze, not saying anything while this information went through my head, before exploding,"What do Harry and I even have to do with this?!"

"Keep your voice down Ms Smith!" I shut up.

"We think this because the Fat Lady remembers him holding up a picture that she recognized as you, and asking about where you were, and we have it on file that he may just be looking for Mr Potter in general."

I felt rather faint, "Oh that's nice, can I sit down?" With a flick of her wand, McGonagall made a chair appear out of nowhere, and I collapsed into it, "But- But why?" I asked, not understanding a thing that was happening, was this just a horrible dream? Why was Sirius Black looking for _me_? Where did he even get a picture of me to show? I wanted to know the answer to that question, "How did he get a picture of me?" McGonagall shrugged and shook her head.

"Since we don't have the picture, and just know that it was of your face, we can not determine where it came from." She looked sorry as she said this, "It's best if you get some rest Veronica, rest assured that Professor Dumbledore and I are doing all that we can to prevent this from happening again. Just be careful in the meantime." I nodded, for what else could I do. I got up, and walked away in a haze, when I laid down next to Angelina, she looked confused.

"Hey, what's up?" She asked, referring to what McGonagall just told me, I didn't think it wise to go spouting off that Sirius Black was looking for me, so I shrugged and lied.

"Oh, just an issue with my Hogsmeade Permission form." I said, pasting a small smile onto my face.

"Is it all good now?"

"Yeah, yeah it's fine." But no matter how hard I tried to think of something else, the maniac laughter of Sirius Black filled my dreams that night.

 **A/N: I actually love writing this.**


	3. Do You Feel Safe?

**Chapter 3: Do You Feel Safe?**

"First quidditch match of the year, do you feel ready?" Fred asked me as he and George came up beside me on a horrible Saturday morning. While quidditch matches would be exciting, it was dampened slightly by the fact that over the past week, after the Sirius Black incident, I had become extremely jumpy, and now even if somebody dropped a quill in class, you'd think a bomb had gone off by looking at me. I had been pretending I was fine though, and was periodically asking McGonagall about more information, she always told me no, and was sympathetic at first, but quickly became irritated at my antics and would now just say a sharp, "No." at the end of each class, before I could even get any words out.

"I don't need to be ready, I'm not playing, or going in general, have you seen the weather out there? Atrocious." I said, turning to the next page of my transfiguration textbook.

Fred crashed down beside me, sighing, "I didn't want to have to do this," He said in a rather solemn voice, I frowned, "Oh Veronica! Will you do me the honour of coming to our glorious quidditch game?" I sighed, but oh no, they weren't done, George joined in, sitting down on my other side.

"It would make us sooo happy if you came!" He said, drawing out the so. I was laughing by this point.

"Hmm, well, I _guess_ I can go. I'm sitting with Lee in the teachers booth though." I added as an afterthought.

"I thought only commentators could sit there?" Fred questioned as he pulled himself, and me, up off the couch by the fire. Oh, how warm it looked.

"Yeah but I did it last year so," I cut off my sentence to walk away, "I have to get a few thousand coats, be back in a few." I double stepped the stairs going up, finding that Alicia and Angelina were already downstairs I guess, I took their coats as well, to bundle up against the rain and bitter wind. Walking back downstairs I noticed that Fred and George had been snatched away by Oliver Wood, who was talking to them both, motioning wildly with his hands.

"I'm back." I said, walking up behind them, putting on my coats as I did so.

Fred turned around, ignoring Oliver, "Wow, you weren't kidding when you said a thousand coats."

"I'm wearing three, calm down." I sneered, winding a scarf around my neck.

"Oh, hello Vern."

"Hello Oliver." I grinned at him as he started to usher the three of us out of the common room and down out to the pitch.

It was truly horrible outside, it was like mother nature was trying to murder all of us, it also didn't help that umbrellas were flying everywhere, and everytime they flew by me, I jumped.

The four of us battled against the brutal elements, and once we got to the pitch I didn't even bother yelling good luck, I knew they wouldn't hear me anyway, I just starting running up the stairs to join Lee. I slid in beside him and smiled at McGonagall, who gave me a stern look, I wiped my smile off my face and turned to Lee. The weather was better up here, some form of an anti-wind charm must have been applied, but it was still very cold.

"You alright Lee?" I said, rubbing my mittened hands together to try and keep them from freezing.

"Yeah," Lee grabbed the megaphone, "Let's get this show on the road."

Within ten minutes Lee had gone hoarse from yelling, while there was no wind inside the teachers booth, there was wind outside, and nobody could hear what Lee was saying apart from me, and the rest of the teachers.

"Just don't bother Mr Jordan, it's not worth it." McGonagall said while shaking her head.

"What is the team doing-is that Hermione?" I said, and Lee squinted through the rain, to where I was pointing, the team was on the ground, huddled up, and there was Hermione and her bushy head of hair, right in the thick of things.

"Yeah I guess they called a timeout, they probably won't cancel the game unless somebody gets seriously injured though." Lee said, but frowned, "Doesn't explain why Hermione is down there though, I can't see what she's doing either through all this muck."

"Oh, there they go again." As the players shot back into the air, battling against the wind, I saw who I thought was Harry, and the Hufflepuff seeker, go up into the air, away from everybody else.

Then something strange started to happen, the howling winds outside, weren't exactly howling any more, we could see that the wind was blowing, but we couldn't hear it, or anybody else in the stands outside for that matter. Professor Dumbledore, who had been sitting at the back of the stands came forward to the edge where me and Lee were sitting. We both shuffled out of the way, as McGonagall ushered the two of us back, Lee and I exchanged a look and the whole pitch grew very cold.

Dumbledore looked up just as something dark started falling from the sky, he whipped out his wand faster than I thought possible, all the quidditch players stopped to stare at the thing too, they all looked rather panicked, some of them even began racing towards it, I couldn't tell who was who through all the rain, suddenly I gasped and grabbed Lee's arm.

"Oh my god! That's Harry!"

" _Aresto Momentum!"_

 **111111111**

"Harry _is_ fine right?" I asked Fred as we were walking to defence against the dark arts the following week, I hadn't been allowed in to see Harry, as Madam Pomfrey was notorious for not letting people see her patients, but I was concerned nonetheless.

"Yeah, he'll be alright, he is a bit pissed that we lost the game though." Fred said, looking out the window where the first snow of the year was softly falling, covering the grounds in a white blanket.

"Pissed that he lost the game? He could have died?" I said, laughing softly.

Fred snorted, "Yeah, I know, right?"

We walked past a bulletin board, and I saw the advertisement for Hogsmeade this Saturday, "Oh yeah, Hogsmeade is this saturday! We're going right?"

Fred scoffed, "You hardly need to ask my dear Veronica!" He pulled a bow in the middle of the hallway. I laughed, throwing my head back, and I saw him smile in my peripheral vision as I did.

"You know what? I find it weird that you all of a sudden start calling me Veronica, when everyone else still calls me Vern no matter how much I ask them to stop it." I challenged him, I had been wondering about this for a while, but just now found the time to ask him, mainly because no one else was around. I knew the only way to get reliable information out of Fred was to catch him alone and unaware.

Fred's cover of badasserie was broken when I saw his cheeks colour in just the slightest, "Well, you got kind of huffy on the train with George and I so I just thought that maybe, for once, I'd do what you asked."

I smiled, and I wanted to see what he'd do when I said this, because I had been thinking about it for a while, "You can just call me Vern, I really don't care anymore."

"Aha!" Fred exclaimed suddenly, "You have given up!" He did a bit of a spin.

I laughed, "I have not given up!" I protested, shoving Fred to the side slightly, damaging his spin and making him stumble. "Come on, we're practically late." I said, pointing to the big clock at the corner we were approaching, it showed that we were almost late to defense.

"Well shit, we better get going then."

 **111111111**

"Where are you two going?" I yelled after Fred and George, I didn't really expect a response, and, of course, I didn't get one.

"They said this morning that they had to do something before they left today, said we should just go." Lee said, coming up beside me where I was standing, right outside the portrait hole.

"Well then what are we waiting for?" Lee grinned and we both started down the stairs on the way to Hogsmeade.

We met up with Fred and George when we got there, they both looked quite proud of themselves.

"So, spill it, what have you two been up too?" I asked as they came close enough.

"Yeah, did you give Snape shampoo?" Lee cut in.

"Or, how about placing a permanent sticking charm to Filch and his demon cat."

"Oh, but I don't think he'd mind that Vern."

"Hmm, maybe you're right Lee."

Both Fred and George had the exact same look on their faces, a mix between annoyance and humour, "Well Lee, Vern, while those are great ideas, they are a little bland." George said, shaking his head like he was disappointed in us.

"Yeah, I mean, where's the creativity?" Fred said, looking exasperated, "We'll tell you inside." He added on.

I rolled my eyes, "Come on, let's go then." I said, motioning to The Three Broomsticks, "I'm freezing." and as I walked past the entrance, I noticed a big brute of a black dog standing off to the side, I found it odd, mainly because the second I looked at the dog, it seemed to look away. But that was impossible, how could a dog know how to avoid my gaze? The one thing I did notice though, before it turned away, was the look of it's haunting grey eyes, the same colour as my own, looking through shaggy black fur.

 **A/N: I had a snow day, we get these often in Canada, so I decided to churn out another chapter instead of studying for my science exam.**


	4. Danger is on the Plate

**Chapter 4: Danger Is On The Plate**

Things had been weird in the past month, I kept seeing the big black dog everywhere on the grounds. I'd be walking to care of magical creatures, and would see the dog sitting at the edge of the forest, or I'd walk by a window and see it prowling across the grounds, even Fred and George had both seen it. But, they didn't think as much of it as I seemed to, maybe they didn't realize that the thing was practically stalking me.

Luckily, weird things aside, it was almost Christmas. We weren't going home for the holidays, mainly because it was easier just to stay here and not take a train across the country. Christmas meant that the castle was extremely festive, and extremely cold. It also meant that homework for the fifth-years was at a solid high, and I was trying not to stress out about it, I still did though. Something I couldn't help about myself was my overwhelming desire to succeed.

"God I am so happy that was our last class." I said, plopping down on the couch in front of the fire, coincidentally beside Ron and Hermione, who were looking quite glum for it being the christmas holidays and everything, "Uh, what happened, did somebody die?" I said, perhaps insensitively, for these days you never knew what could happen.

"No, but somebody's probably going to." Hermione said while Ron nodded, the both of them not moving.

"What?!" I exclaimed looking between them, "You better explain because that is too serious of a statement to say with no explanation." I said holding my hands up.

"You know that whole hippogriff Malfoy thing that went on a few months ago?" Ron asked, I only had a small idea what he was talking about, as I wasn't keen on third year issues, but I nodded anyways, "Alright, well it was Malfoy's fault that it happened in the first place, but because his father practically controls the ministry, the hippogriff, his name is Buckbeak, is being sent to a trial, and we want to help Hagrid but we really can't imagine him winning anyways, because he's half giant, and it's just a big mess." Ron said this all in only two breaths, impressive.

"Wow, that really sucks."

"Yeah, it does." Hermione said bluntly, I felt bad, but I didn't want to hang around this negativity any longer, I spotted Angelina walking across the common room towards the portrait hole with her broom slung over her shoulder.

"Angelina!" I called out, getting up and going over to her, "Quidditch practice?"

"Yeah, why?" She said, stopping.

"Excellent, I'll join you." I said, sticking my wand out to the side and muttering a quick _Accio_ to summon my cloak, hat, and mittens from the couch I was just previously sitting on.

"I thought that you thought that practice was boring." Angelina said, giving me a quizzical look.

"So is sitting up here," I rolled my eyes when she didn't move, "Come on!" I tugged at her arm and she just shrugged and followed after me as I climbed out of the portrait hole.

Angelina noticed my shivering at the blustery December weather as we got to the pitch, this of course, only served as fuel for her uproarious and very contagious laughter, which I could even still hear in the teachers stands, which were sheltered from the wind.

I was looking down, fixing my mittens and flexing my fingers, when a rather audible thump was heard beside me, I jumped, and when I looked up to see what is was, I almost felt like catapulting myself out of the stands.

That fucking dog. It was just sitting there, I don't even know how it got through the door at the bottom of the stairs leading up here. It was a doorknob, dogs don't have opposable thumbs, so what the hell was it doing sitting up here just staring at me with a somewhat smug look on it's face?

"Uh, hi." Oh my god I'm talking to a dog, a stalker dog at that. Maybe dogs just did that when they liked you? I don't know, I've never had a dog. I tried to ignore it, it was a big dog, but not really threatening, so I didn't feel scared, and I always had my wand. I was still shivering, and it was still cold, but watching the practice did sort of beat sitting up in the common room, so I wasn't exactly complaining.

I turned my back on the dog, to give full attention to the practice, it was definitely a him, I hadn't checked, but I feel like it just was. I had that feeling. He didn't do anything else for awhile, I kind of forgot about him, until about five minutes later when I felt a nudge on my leg, I turned around, a bit freaked out still and saw him just sitting there, except now there was a cat.

"What the _fuck_ is going on?" I was so confused, and the only place I could seek solace was inside, where multiple quadrupeds couldn't follow me, I was done with tonight.

But, of course, tonight wasn't done with me yet, when I tried to leave, he blocked me, the dog blocked me, the cat just sat there, and I took a closer look at it, hadn't I seen a cat like that before? It clicked as I realized that this cat, was Hermione's cat, Crookshanks was it's name. Excellent, now I had leverage.

"Crookshanks you better get your dog friend to let me goddamn leave!" Was I cussing out a cat? Yep. I had heard that cats never listened, but I'd never seen a cat with this utterly _bored_ of an expression on its face. It looked like it was personally mocking me, felt like it too.

"What do you need?" I whined, finally losing it, the practice wasn't anywhere near over yet, and half of them didn't even know I was here, so they didn't notice my argument with these two. What I said though, got the attention of the dog, who stopped his stoic guarding of the door and came over to me wagging his tail, to which I backed away. A dog that could understand english, okay, it was obvious that this was more than just an ordinary dog, but I was here now.

"Alright, well, let's figure this out, wag your tail once for no, and twice for yes." His tail stopped wagging immediately, and he looked ready, god it was so odd. "Do you need help?" Two wags, "Alright, do you need shelter?" One wag, "Nope alright, Food?" Two wags, "Alright so you need food, anything else?" One wag, "Great, food it is, I can manage that, come with me, and wait outside the castle while I get you something, is that okay?" Two wags.

I walked down the stairs and waved goodbye to Angelina as I left, she looked confused for a moment, but was quickly pulled back when Oliver yelled at her about something. I made the trek up to the castle, aware of how strange it looked that I was flanked by a giant dog and a ginger cat, I could only hope that no one would see me. I didn't say anything as I left him sitting there and walked the familiar path down to the kitchens, tickling the pear, I was allowed in and immediately swarmed by the elves, as per usual.

"What can we get Ms. Vern today?" One squeaked, I couldn't get mad at them for that.

"Could you please get me a nice cooked steak?" I asked, watching as almost instantly, a large steak was delivered to me, "Thank you very much." I said, but nearly couldn't get the words out due to them ushering me out again, the elves never liked someone staying too long down here.

I walked back upstairs, trying to look as inconspicuous as I could while holding a wrapped up steak under my cloak. I pushed open the doors and ran down the steps to the dog, who hadn't moved. "Alright I got steak, hope you like it." I crouched down, placing my hands on my knees, he looked intently up at me, "I did this for you, and to be honest you kind of freak me out, so if you don't mind, do me a favour and stop following me around. You may think your sly, but I always see you watching me out the windows." I smiled, and he gave a wolfish dog grin back, it really looked like a smile. I unwrapped the steak and placed it in front of him, "See ya." I said and without looking back, I went inside and up to bed, never stopping to think about the strange night I'd just had, with the strange dog, with the strange grey eyes.

 **111111111**

A trending theme in my life was that people only took me seriously when I was angry, and since I wasn't exactly angry at the dog when I told him to basically screw off, I still kept seeing him. I was serious when I told him to stop stalking me, but maybe I wasn't angry enough, or maybe his english skills only went so far. I didn't know, and I'd stopped caring. All I knew was that in the snowy days leading up to Christmas, I was seeing him everywhere again.

Angelina and Alicia had gone home for the holidays, so had almost everybody actually, except for me, Harry, Hermione, the Weasleys, and a select other few. Them going home meant that I got the dormitory to myself, and it was nice not being woken up at the crack of dawn by them getting ready for a morning quidditch practice. So, when christmas rolled around, it was wonderful to take my time waking and getting up. Until I heard several thumps on the door.

I knew it couldn't be Fred or George, even they hadn't found a way to get up the girls staircase, or if they had, they hadn't told me. This made me worried that one of them had actually found a way to get up them, so I quickly shot out of bed and flung open the door and ran down the stairs to the main set of stairs that lead to the common room.

Fred and George lowered their wands, and the books that were floating, and looked primed to fly up the stairs and hit my door, dropped to the ground. "Did you think we had found a way up or something?" Fred asked, somehow reading my mind, like he always seemed to.

"Of course not." I said snottily, smoothing down my hair as I came down the rest of the steps to the common room, which was currently empty apart from Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who seemed to be bickering about something anyway.

"We have to go to breakfast, it's so late already, come on Vern!" George said excitedly, shoving me past where a small pile of presents with my name on them waited, sweet. I had gotten Fred and George muggle tricks, they found them interesting because magic couldn't explain how they worked.

After we had breakfast, I went back up to my room to open my gifts. George had gotten me a book that I had been wanting, bless his soul, and Angelina and Alicia had both pitched in to get me a joint gift of some new clothes, which they knew I didn't get very often. Fred's gift was the most surprising though, probably because I couldn't find it.

I looked everywhere, the staircase to my room and the common room, Fred and George had already left and I didn't know to where so I left the common room in search of them, why would Fred forget to give me a present? That's not like him at all. Usually Fred was the most punctual with christmas and birthday presents, and his were always the most thoughtful, so the fact that I just didn't get one was strange. Also, it wasn't unusual for him and George to tag team a present, which would make sense too. But it was nowhere.

Walking through the halls was cold, but bearable, since I had forgotten my coat. I checked the great hall, near the lake, and the library (I'm not sure why), but I couldn't find them. It turned out that they were the ones that found me actually, when I was walking back up to the common room, which was now guarded by some stupid knight who changed the password nine times a week.

"Hey, Vern! We've been looking for you!" I heard from behind me, as I was walking up the last set of stairs.

"Funnily enough, I have been too." I said, smirking and turning around, looking down at the two of them.

"What you've been looking for yourself?" George said, cocking his head, looking fake confused. I rolled my eyes.

"You know what I mean, anyways Fred-"

"Shit, I forgot that Lee needed me to help him pull off the perfect christmas prank this morning, smell you later alligator." George cut me off, and left, quickly disappearing from sight behind a tapestry.

"What was that about? Where's he going?" I sputtered, this morning was getting weirder and weirder, though wasn't everything lately?

"I believe he just told us where he was going." Fred said, climbing up the stairs to stand beside me, "What did you want? You said my name before George interrupted."

"Oh, yeah, I couldn't find your present this morning." I said, crossing my arms in front of me and looking into his clear blue eyes, which sparkled with mischievousness, even when he was acting serious.

"Are you so arrogant that you believe I must have gotten you a present? Maybe I just forgot." Fred teased, but he was smiling as he said it, I shoved him in the side.

"Come on! I know you got me something! And it has to be something really good, or you wouldn't make me wait this long to open it!" I whined, laughing a bit as I lightly pummeled his shoulder, he grinned.

"Alright, alright, calm down crazy lady." He laughed and pulled a little box out of his pocket and handed it me, he looked kind of awkward as he did so, strange. "Here, I just didn't put it with the others because I was afraid it would get lost, you can open it whenever, but I do have to go help George and Lee, so, see you." He quickly walked away and I tried to call out after him, it was strange that he didn't wait to watch me open it, but he was already gone.

 **A/N: Sorry this took so long, school's been pretty hectic but it's all cool now, I'm expecting to do the next chapter for Wednesday or Thursday.**


	5. Together Is Better

**Chapter 5: Together is Better**

A ring.

It looked too big at first, but the second I slid it on, it shrunk perfectly to fit the size of my finger. It was old, but fixed up in a way that made it look new. Twisted gold made up the band, rubies and garnets were nestled among the top, with a small diamond in the very middle. I didn't look gaudy, or fake, and it didn't stand out much. But I noticed it, and I loved it.

A note, stuffed in the bottom of the little box. It was crumpled, and the writing was cramped, but I could still read it.

 _Veronica,_

 _I found this at my house in a drawer over the summer, it's pretty old, I think, but I don't know. I thought you'd like it, and it will probably suit you._

 _I hope you like it,_

 _Love,_

 _Fred_

I was pretty stunned, what I had gotten him wasn't even that great! Then Fred Weasley shows me up with a ring that's probably a family heirloom, a handwritten note, and a ' _Love Fred_ ' at the end, and all I could manage was some muggle joke shit!

It was a little humorous that he found a family heirloom in a drawer, and immediately pocketed it to give to his friend for christmas, but I wasn't thinking about that right now.

I managed to snap myself out of it, and move from the staircase I had been standing on for the past ten minutes. It had made three rotations in this time. I had to find Fred, admiring the beautiful ring one last time, I spun around and raced down the stairs, in search of him.

I found him and George in a hallway, fucking around with some fireworks, typical. Lee was nowhere to be seen, which made me suspicious that he was doing something else mischievous.

"Fred!" I called out, approaching where he was standing at a rather rapid pace, both him and George turned around quickly, probably expecting it to be a teacher, but relaxed when they saw that it was just me.

"Oh, hey Vern what's up?" Fred said, putting his handful of fireworks down for the time being.

"Well, I just wanted to say thanks for the present you got me, it was uh, really cool." Really cool? I was stuttering, why was I stuttering? I tried to calm down the red spreading up my cheeks, and then I saw George standing behind Fred, and when he saw me looking at him, he winked and pointed to Fred. Alright, now I couldn't stop the red pouring onto my face, crawling up from my neck, I probably looked like I had an infection.

George was silently pissing himself laughing behind Fred, but Fred looked concerned, "Vern are you alright? Your face is really red-"

"Yeah, I'm fine don't worry, I just wanted to say thanks." and then I did something even more embarrassing, I stepped forward and hugged Fred, he was quite a bit taller than me, but it was nice, as I didn't really hug anybody apart from Mrs. Weasley that often.

My hug did have a second meaning though, to give George the middle finger where Fred couldn't see. I backed away, Fred looked pretty shocked.

"Well, yeah you're welcome, I just thought you'd like it." He sounded confused, that was fine, because I was too. I didn't say anything and just kind of waved and left, I really needed to grow a pair, I did smile though as I walked away, because I could hear George heckling Fred about something unintelligible until I turned the corner.

 **111111111**

The Christmas holidays were over, and classes were back up in full swing, teachers never stopped lecturing us about the importance of OWLs, and how we should be studying for them already. It was tiring the amount of homework I got, and maintaining my solid O/E average was getting harder than ever as the workloads increased, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw even had a quidditch game on Saturday, and because of how much homework I was racking up, I wasn't sure if I'd even be able to go.

It was an exciting time for us Gryffindors because if we beat Ravenclaw, We'd be in second place, with only Slytherin to beat for the final match of the year, which we had done many times before. This year was the year that every Gryffindor hoped to win the house cup.

"Vern come on! The match is starting in ten minutes!" I sighed and stopped my furious writing of a transfiguration essay to look up at Angelina and Alicia, who were both standing there looking sorry for me.

"If the match is starting in ten minutes, I think you two should be down there, not me. Anyway, I have lots of homework to do."

"You can do your homework down there, and I think Fred really wanted you to come as well." Alicia said in a lilting voice, she was implying something, but I didn't know what.

"It's raining, which means I can't do my homework outside, and Fred will survive without me."

Angelina pulled me up from the chair by my arm, I hated how strong she was, "We have Harry on the firebolt, and we had the best practice ever last night, you are not going to miss the game that will put us in line to get the house cup." She practically growled, I sighed and without much protest, I let myself get dragged down to the pitch, there was no use fighting with these two.

The game was great, and strangely, by the time we got down to the pitch, and I made my way up next to Lee, the rain had cleared off, and it was turning into a nice, clear, day. The game started off with Gryffindor strong, but then Ravenclaw started coming back, I actually got quite into it and was yelling things among with the rest of the Gryffindor stands, so was McGonagall, even her hat had come loose.

I was twisting the ring on my finger in nervousness as I watched Harry search for the snitch. Lee though, was having the time of his life commentating about the new firebolt that Harry had. Sadly, McGonagall was not so impressed, and kept yelling at him to stop, but I found it quite funny.

We watched Harry and the Ravenclaw seeker do several barrel rolls, she wasn't doing anything but mark him, I wasn't sure if that was a good play or not, but it was working on Harry, who kept getting distracted by her cutting him off. Oliver was getting agitated and he looked like he was yelling at Harry to 'Knock her off her broom!' but Harry was too nice, he'd never do that.

Lee covered the mouthpiece of the speaker with his hand before leaning over to me, "You see that? She's literally just following him everywhere so that he can't catch the snitch." He said, indicating to Harry and The Ravenclaw seeker, whose name I didn't know.

All of a sudden, an uproar started in the stands, most of the teachers, and Lee and I, looked over the barrier to see what was happening, I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw three cloaked figures that looked like dementors on the field, before I realized that they weren't really dementors, but students dressed up!

McGonagall was having a fit, and had already left with Dumbledore to put a stop to it, Lee was so shocked he didn't even say anything, only when I shoved him to show him that Harry was after the snitch did he start commentating again.

I knew that Harry had issues with dementors, but I would have thought that he would realize that these were fake ones. Apparently not though because when he looked down and saw them, he whipped his wand out faster than I would have thought possible and in a split second, something huge, and something white, shot out and down towards the three unidentifiable students. I jumped back, I'd never seen a spell like that in my life, a gasp rang out around the stands so iIm assuming that most people hadn't either.

It knocked over the three before it dissipated, leaving a quiet echo, before people started realizing what was happening in the sky, Harry had caught the snitch.

I didn't even realize I was screaming until I was on the pitch with the rest of the Gryffindors, we had all streamed out from the stands as one, and were celebrating the advancement to the finals.

I ran into Angelina and Alicia first, who slammed into me jumping up and down, "I told you! I told you!" Angelina said, too overcome with excitement to say much more.

"We haven't won the cup yet." I said earning a negative look from Alicia, but I was pushed along before I could say anything else, I felt a hand on my arm and turned to see George, who was smiling brilliantly.

"I can't believe it-" But he was cut off as the second twin, otherwise known as Fred, came up and literally picked me up and swung me around, putting me back on the ground he grabbed my hands in his own and just held them.

"Can you believe it Vern! We did it!" I shrieked in surprise, but laughed at the expression of childlike wonder on his face.

"Party in the common room! Come on guys!" George yelled out, and led the crowd up to the castle. Fred stayed beside me though, and we talked the whole way up to castle, laughing and joking about the fake dementors (which just turned out to be that Malfoy kid and his cronies). I was so lost in the conversation in fact, that I didn't even realize Fred had still been holding onto my hand the whole way back to the common room, it scared me a bit to realize that I didn't even want him to let go.

The party that night was probably the highlight of fifth year, I didn't worry about homework, or review, I just had fun, talking and laughing with my friends well into the night, It only stopped at one in the morning, when McGonagall showed up and yelled at us all to go to sleep, nobody did willingly, but I was tired, and fell asleep just about as soon as my head hit the pillow.

 **1111111111**

"AAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"

I fell out of my bed I woke up so fast. I heard similar reaction coming from Angelina and Alicia and wondered who was screaming so loud that it we could hear it from here.

"What the _fuck_ was that?" Angelina hissed as I heard her get out of bed, I pulled myself off the floor, and the three of us made our way over to the door which was standing a little bit open, probably why we heard the scream so clearly, but that was strange, the door was always closed at night.

"Great," Alicia grumbled, looking at the open door, "Our faulty door is making somebody's nightmares sound like they're right here."

But it wasn't just us, and before long, every student in the tower had streamed out to the common room, we didn't know why, only that it was happening. A tired looking Fred fought his way over to me and ran a hand through his hair.

"You won't believe this, apparently were all out here because Ron had a nightmare."

"What?"

"Yeah, apparently He dreamed that Sirius Black was shredding his curtains with a knife, and then he was so paranoid that he shredded his own curtains trying to wake himself up." I frowned noticing McGonagall in the corner, trying to gain the attention of the room.

"Then why is McGonagall here?"

We watched as McGonagall went out and asked Sir Cadogan if he'd let anybody into the tower, when I heard his rather chipper response of yes, I felt my knees get weak. Fred's jaw dropped and mass panic broke out in seconds as we all scrambled to get out, but a white faced McGonagall told us to stay in, and that the castle would be searched.

Nobody slept a wink last night, and while Angelina and Alicia didn't know, Sirius Black had been looking for me last time he broke in, and now he breaks in again, and our dorm room door is suspiciously left open, even when it's always closed? It didn't make sense, and white hot terror flooded through me all night long, through the silence that took over the common room.

When McGonagall came back and told us he hadn't been found, and in fact had escaped again, I shoved to the front and caught her attention before she left, she got a strange expression over her face, and motioned for me to follow her out into the hall.

"I understand that last time this happened Black was looking for you , and we haven't forgotten, but as nothing points to him coming after you this time-"

"Our dorm room door was open." I said quietly, twisting the ring on my finger that I had forgot to take off, "We always close the door just like everyone else, but when we woke up to Ron screaming, it was open."

Her face got very pale again, "And you are certain?"

"Yes, I'm the one that closed it last night."

McGonagall didn't say anything for a while, but when she did her words sounded stressed, "I don't want you going anywhere alone Ms. Smith, always have your wand on you as well, I assure you Professor Dumbledore and I will get to the bottom of this, but for now, just take all the precautions you can."

I was quiet the next day, everyone was though, we were all rather tired and scared, I stayed in my room the whole day, feigning a fever to get out of being social, or talking to anyone about the fact I was in some form of danger.

But I wasn't going to go anywhere alone, nobody was, and I knew that little by little, my fear would go away until Sirius Black was caught for good.

 **A/N: Yet another snow day up here in the great white north proves for great writing time, so another chapter here we go.**


	6. Check Some Backrounds

**A/N: Just a quick poll here, please review or pm with your answer. I want this to be a trilogy, but I can't decide what years to fit into them, if you could pick between these three options, and either review, or pm, or whatever, that would be great. I might not choose what the majority votes for, but it would certainly help me.**

 **Option A: Book one: 5th &6th year, Book two: 7th year&war, Book three: Undecided**

 **Option B: Book one: 5th year, Book two: 6th year, Book three: 7th year**

 **Option C: Book one: 5th year, Book two: 7th year, Book three: war**

 **Thank you!**

 **Chapter 6: Check Some Backgrounds**

That stupid knight was finally gone, the only thing bad about that was that the Fat Lady had been restored, but she was so flighty that security trolls stood there to guard her, and man were they freaky. They would leer at you while you were waiting for the door to swing open, and forget about lounging outside the common room to wait for the Fat Lady to get back from one of her late night trips, you'd be better off in the library, with the hawk-like Madam Pince.

It wasn't just me that was paranoid either, nobody went anywhere alone, and security around the castle was almost as bad as last year, and don't forget, last year was the year of a giant snake using the plumbing.

I knew that teachers suspected Sirius Black of going after Harry, McGonagall had told me so the last time he'd broken in, but what I'd hadn't realized, was that teachers thought the same of me too. I guess word had gotten out, and now every teacher, except McGonagall, treated me as if I were on my deathbed, about to be murdered the next time I was alone in the bathroom taking a shit.

On that note, you couldn't even go to the bathroom alone anymore, every aspect of privacy, unless you were in your dorms, was obliterated, and I was even still paranoid about Black hiding my dorm room, since I suspected he broke in last time as well.

Ron Weasley hadn't closed his mouth since Black had shredded his bed curtains, and every time I heard the story be repeated around school, it got wilder and wilder, I was ready for a version including that shamed hippogriff to come out next.

A strange thing that happened though, was that a Hogsmeade sign up sheet still came out on the bulletin board.

"They really gonna let us out to Hogsmeade?" I heard a sixth year say as we were all crowding around the sheet, several people shrugged in response but no one said anything, I wasn't going though, nobody could force me this time.

 **111111111**

Maybe I was a weak willed person, or maybe if you looked like Fred Weasley, talked like Fred Weasley, and were Fred Weasley, I'd listen to you and throw caution to the wind, or at least more now than I used to.

Somehow, someway, I found myself walking down to Hogsmeade, a place I really shouldn't be going, with Fred and George Weasley, the two guys that were definitely going to get me killed one day. Or, maybe I just had a deathwish.

It just so happened though, that the second we got to Hogsmeade, chaos was already breaking loose, due to Malfoy and his two little friends, who were currently legging it down the main street, covered in green muck, and heading to the castle.

"What a weird day eh?" George laughed, doing a wolf whistle at them as they ran past, Fred and I snorted when he did this.

"Ten points from Slytherin for disorderly conduct!" I yelled after them, for once using my prefect privileges. It was disorderly though, they were causing a ruckus.

The three of us headed to the shrieking shack, which was a nice hangout if you ever wanted peace and quiet, but, continuing with today's theme, we were not met with that, but instead a frantic Ron, running down the path to the castle, towards us.

Fred put a hand to his forehead, but George put his arm out as a blockade so Ron couldn't run past us. He screeched to a stop, "Move."

"No."

"Come on George I don't have all day."

I sighed, knowing these two, it was going to take all day unless I did something about it. I stepped to the side, opening up a spot on the path, Ron nodded and took of again. George turned to me, he was feigning a sad expression, "You ruined my fun Vern, how does that make you feel?"

"Wonderful."

 **111111111**

"Veronica do mind staying back for a moment? If it doesn't trouble you of course." The mild voice of Professor Lupin interrupted my act of packing up from defense, I waved Fred and Angelina to go on without me, they both had been waiting.

"Yeah, sure professor." I slung my bag over my shoulder and walked up to the front of the classroom, where Lupin was sitting at his desk rifling through some papers.

"I was asked by your head of house to give you this letter." Lupin said, smiling and picking up a letter that looked like it had been folded in half several times.

"Well, uh, thank you Professor, I'll get right on this." I took the letter and nodded to him, and turned and walked out the door, down the halls that were quickly emptying as most students went to their next classes. For me it was lunch, so I didn't have to worry about going to another class for an hour.

I looked at the letter that Professor Lupin said came from McGonagall, it was just a plain white envelope. I slid my finger along the top, ripping the paper to open it, sliding out the letter, I unfolded it and read the delicately scripted message below.

 _Please come to my office (located in gargoyle corridor on the seventh floor) at 7pm on Saturday night._

 _PS. I do love some nice ice mice_

 _Albus Dumbledore_

My brow furrowed unconsciously, why would the headmaster need to see me? Then I realized it was probably about the whole 'Sirius Black is hot on my tail case' which McGonagall did say she would come back to me about, confident in my assumptions, I headed off to the great hall for some well deserved lunch, and then more homework of course.

 **111111111**

Saturday rolled around nice and quiet, I had all the time in the world to finish my pressing mound of homework, and in equal parts screw off as well, because that was always important.

"Veronica, you're a prefect." I sighed as Percy came bustling my way from across the common room.

"Unfortunately. What do you need?" I said, putting down my quill and rolling up my parchment, that potions essay wasn't going to get done today, but at least the herbology one did.

"Well I have just been informed by a rather miffed Professor Snape," Wow, speak of the devil, I thought as I finished putting my horribly difficult essay away, "that our model student Hermione Granger was reported getting in a physical altercation with Draco Malfoy outside, and since such things are below my title, I thought I'd get you to take care of it for me." I tried to keep myself from choking on my spit as Percy said that Malfoy and Hermione got in a 'physical altercation' I swallowed it back though and instead got up.

"Yeah, course I'll do that, do you know where they are?"

Percy sniffed, "Well I have no idea where Malfoy is, but Hermione is outside of the common room with my brother and Harry Potter, they are making quite a ruckus."

I smiled stiffly, "Alright."

I walked out of the common room and looked to my left, I immediately saw Ron, Harry, and Hermione standing just past the security trolls. "Hey, Ron, your brother just assaulted me about Hermione getting in a fight with Malfoy, I don't know, he told me to come out here- whoa are you alright?" I asked, noticing Hermione's tearstained face, and Harry and Ron's rather awkward ones.

Ron shook his head, "Well, the hippogriff, the one we told you about a few months back, has been, uh," Ron lowered his voice to a whisper, "sentenced to death." I grimaced, that wasn't exactly good news,and it definitely explained why Hermione was crying, if I had known the hippogriff a bit better, I probably would have been showering the ground with my tears as well.

"I'm really sorry, I wish I could do something to help." I frowned, dismissing Percy's claims of a physical altercation while I did, there were more important things at hand, and I doubt it really happened, just that Malfoy kid trying to start something.

"Well you could help us with the appeal, if you're into that sort of thing?" Harry piped up, that threw me in for a loop.

"Wait, but you said it-"

"He." Hermione injected.

"Sorry, _he_ ," I corrected myself, "but you said he had been sentenced to death already? I thought that meant that it was all over and done?"

"No, even though he's been sentenced, at the actual event, if we collect enough evidence, we can make an appeal to not execute him. You could help if you want, it would probably look good for us to have a prefect on our side too." Hermione said, wiping her face with her sleeve.

"I'll help, but, I'm not much of a prefect, I don't think I've done my rounds all year actually-"

"Yeah but you have a badge. Presentation Vern." Ron said smartly, I rolled my eyes.

"Alright, alright, I'll do some background research, when is this?"

"We don't know," Hermione said, wringing her hands, "probably in a few months."

"Excellent, that's more than enough time." Waving goodbye to the three, I turned and walked back into the common room, and skillfully avoided Percy to get back up to my dorm, and laid out some homework, mainly to pass the time before the mysterious meeting with Professor Dumbledore that I still had ahead.


	7. Anger Issues

**A/N: Just a quick poll here, please review or pm with your answer. I want this to be a trilogy, but I can't decide what years to fit into them, if you could pick between these three options, and either review, or pm, or whatever, that would be great. I might not choose what the majority votes for, but it would certainly help me.**

 **Option A: Book one: 5th &6th year, Book two: 7th year&war, Book three: Undecided**

 **Option B: Book one: 5th year, Book two: 6th year, Book three: 7th year**

 **Option C: Book one: 5th year, Book two: 7th year, Book three: war**

 **Thank you!**

 **Chapter 7: Anger Issues**

"What do _you_ need?" The gargoyle asked in a snarky voice. I narrowed my eyes, looking at the note I had from earlier, it read to go to gargoyle hall, and since this was the end of gargoyle hall, I assumed this was the headmaster's office, where I was supposed to meet Professor Dumbledore.

"I'm assuming you guard the headmaster's office, it implies so here but I'm really not sure." I said, reining my temper in, and trying not to snap at the rude gargoyle.

It sniffed, "I can neither confirm or deny anything." I rolled my eyes.

"That most definitely means yes, but there's a password right? I'm assuming it's ice mice." The gargoyle sighed, then grumbled as he started to get up and move out of the way to reveal a spinning staircase. "Thank you very much." I said curtly, and swiftly walked past the grumbling beast to see what this was all about.

I stepped onto the revolving staircase and circled to the top, where I stepped off and looked at the large wooden door. I felt my stomach clench as I raised my hand up to knock on the solid wood.

I didn't have to though, the door swung open on its own and left my closed fist hanging. Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore were sitting at his desk, I dropped my hand and abruptly put it by my side.

"Ms Smith if you would kindly come and sit down." McGonagall said curtly, looking a bit stressed, as per usual though. I stepped forward into the large circular room. I had never been in Professor Dumbledore's office before. And it kind of shocked me. Noises where coming from every direction and several things were just whizzing about and spinning, like they had a mind of their own.

I walked to the chair in front of Professor Dumbledore's desk, the one across from McGonagall. I had my suspicions about why I was here, most of them had to do with Sirius Black. Though, a few about my prefect status being reversed, because I had done literally _nothing_ (except start shit) all year, were darting through my mind.

Sitting down, I nervously clasped my hands, "So, if I can ask, why am I here?"

"This particular meeting Ms Smith, has to do with certain allegations that I hear you have spoken to Professor McGonagall about previously, but are just now coming to light." The calming, but energetic and bright voice of Professor Dumbledore washed over me, I didn't feel very nervous anymore, just apprehensive.

"Yeah," I said, feeling it was my turn to speak, "I know that Sirius Black was looking for me before, when he slashed the fat lady's painting I mean, and then I have a suspicion that somebody was in my dorm room the night he broke into the tower." I stated my case, feeling very much a witness in front of a judge or something.

"I myself have looked into your claim of the door being open even though you closed and locked it the previous night." McGonagall said, folding her hands, "Your door was tampered with, some kind of magic, I am not sure what, but it cut the bolt."

I felt the blood drain from my face, my hands started to sweat though, like all the heat went there instead, "So did Sirius Black break into my dorm room?" I questioned almost desperately.

"Well," Professor Dumbledore started, "we cannot say yes for sure, but it is highly plausible."

"Oh, great." I felt myself deflate just a little bit, and wanted nothing more than to just go and hangout with Fred or something, just to cheer me up and take my mind off things. "So, is that all you needed me here about?"

McGonagall looked almost sympathetic, and I took that as a no, and sighed, sinking deeper into the chair I was already slouching in.

"We would just like to talk about some theories as to why Sirius Black is looking for you." McGonagall said placatingly, a tone I have never heard exit her mouth.

I snorted, "well, obviously I don't know." I really just wanted to leave, was that too much to ask?

It was like Dumbledore read my mind, "You may not have the faintest idea what Sirius Black has to do with you, and I'm sure you don't, but as we are talking about you, Veronica, you must remain present."

"What is there to talk about, unless there are actual theories as to why?" I questioned, the fact that there might be an actual reason piqued my interest.

"We truly only have one proper theory," McGonagall sniffed, "and I find it highly unlikely myself." I was relieved at that, if McGonagall found it unlikely, it probably was, Professor McGonagall had to be the most sensible person I knew of.

"Veronica," Professor Dumbledore started, it always shocked me when teachers used first names, "you have no idea of who your family is." This soured my face.

"I never have, and I don't think I ever will, what does this have to do with anything?"

"Well, I invite you to look at a possibility, that somehow, somewhere, you might be related to Sirius Black." Dumbledore said, twining his spindly fingers together and resting his chin on them.

"No."

McGonagall frowned, "I don't believe it either, but at least consider the possibility-"

"No!" I shouldn't be getting this upset, but I felt angry that I could be related to a murderer. I knew it could be true, I wasn't stupid, but I wasn't going to admit it, I didn't want to face the possibility. "I'm sorry professors but I think it almost impossible that I am in any way related to Sirius Black!"

Dumbledore sighed, "The point is that you don't know, and that you could be related to him, it would definitely explain why he's been looking for you, as there really is no other motive."

"Yeah, I could be, but with logic like that, I could be related to the Queen for all we know!"

I was angry, that much was clear, I could feel it bubbling like a volcano. But why I was _so_ angry, I didn't know. The possibility of being related to Sirius Black was bad, I knew that, but was I so in denial that I was taking it out on other people?

The idea was ludicrous, as was the idea that he would come to a fifteen year old for help, and hadn't I already discussed with McGonagall that Black was looking for Harry? Maybe he went into the wrong dormitory, or… grabbed the wrong picture? I don't know.

Professor McGonagall looked quite shocked at my outburst, like she was about to give me a lecture on disorderly conduct or something, but Dumbledore still had that little smile on his face, and his eyes twinkled brighter than ever, it infuriated me.

"Minerva, I sense nothing more is going to be done tonight, would you please escort Ms Smith back up to Gryffindor tower?" Dumbledore said, calm as ever.

"Don't you want to call me Ms Black?" That was uncalled for, and I couldn't stop it as slipped out, even though it really was rude, I felt bad immediately after saying it.

"No." The simple answer and never changing expression of Dumbledore was the last thing I knew before McGonagall whisked me out.

 **111111111**

Professor McGonagall had left me to my own devices once I told her that I was going to the library. I wasn't of course, and instead, wandered the halls by myself. Coincidentally, this was the one thing I was told not to do. That was probably why I did it.

I travelled to a small offshoot of a fifth floor corner, looking out at the forest, that was a mistake. The dog was back, it was just sitting, looking up at the stars and the almost full moon, his black outline in stark contrast on the moonwashed ground.

Was it dangerous? Yes. A bad idea? Yes.

But that didn't stop me as I settled down on the cold, still hard ground. The dog had seen me coming but didn't make any moves when I sat down, so I assumed he was fine with it.

"Maybe I have anger issues." I don't know why I was talking, he could understand english, but he wasn't a therapist. What I probably should be doing is telling somebody that there was a stray dog on the grounds, but that didn't seem so important. He wasn't hurting anybody.

The dog looked at me properly, his eyes looked almost quizzical. It was strange looking at a dog face, that had all the expressions of a human one.

"Let me explain," I started, turning my face up to the sky, "I kind of blew up at two of my teachers when I really should have handled the situation calmly." I saw him blink in my peripheral vision, then look back up at the sky like I was.

Why was I doing this? Why was I sitting next to a stray dog on the cold ground at eight at night? The dog couldn't talk back to me, I should really be ranting about stuff like this to Angelina or something, somebody who could understand, and make me feel better.

But maybe I did feel better, I felt calmer than before at least, it was probably just being outside though. 'Fresh air' and all that.

I sighed, "You know what? My butt is getting very cold, and if I get caught out here, or if somebody sees me, I'll get in so much trouble that I won't even to be able to take a shit alone anymore."

He gave a wheezy sort of bark that sounded scarily like a laugh, and stood up, giving a full body shake of his fur. I stood up as well, brushing off the back of my cloak, I looked back at the dog.

"You know, I'm tired of just calling you 'it' or 'he' in my head whenever I see you." I started walking back up to the castle, the dog trotting beside me, he shook his head, shaggy hair flying.

He let out three barks, "What does that mean? I can't understand dog talk, but I could suggest some names and if you like any, it's the same as before, one wag for no, two for yes." I kept my eyes on him as we slowly meandered up to the castle.

"Firstly, are you a boy," two wags, "excellent, I was right, okay let's get started." I rubbed my hands together, having quite a bit of fun, forgetting the events that occurred in Dumbledore's office just an hour or so before. Maybe that's why I subconsciously came down here in the first place, where I could escape anger with an entirely new thing.

"Fido." One wag, and a scoff like bark, I smiled. "No, okay, did that offend you? To dog-like? Alright, well, how about, hmm, Max?" Only a half-hearted wag.

"Wow you're picky, I would be okay with being called anything as long as it wasn't offensive or something." He gave a whine and stopped suddenly, I watched him intently as he reached out with a paw and touched my leg, then the ground, as if telling me to watch.

I crouched down to see what he wanted me too. He started sniffing the ground, making snuffling, snorting, noises. I frowned, "Your name is sniff?" One wag, "well then what?" He did something very surprising, and took his paw and drew out a large 'U' in the dirt, ripping up the grass where his claw went. I was shocked, I knew that this dog was more than a dog, and that he could understand english, but knowing how to write a letter? That was strange, saying that this was letter, and not just a random thing.

"U? So not sniff but snuff?" He gave a shrug and half-hearted two wags, "That's good enough, I'm calling you Snuff now." The newly named Snuff got back up and started trotting back to the castle.

"Hey, I don't know where you're going! You don't live in the castle." I joked, and when we reached the main doors. I looked around, and not seeing any teachers around I got ready to go in, but first I turned to the dog who was a weird human-like stalker, but was fast becoming a friend.

"Alright Snuff, I leave you here, maybe I'll see you around." I gave sort of a mock salute, and Snuff gave a soft bark, I ran up the stairs, double stepping until I reached the doors, pulling them open just a foot, as they were enchanted to be feather light, I sucked in and slid inside, shutting the doors softly behind me, and leaving Snuff out in the night.

 **111111111**

"Where were you Vern? You've been missing since dinner?" Angelina asked as I came into the common room.

"Oh, I was in the library, you know, OWLs and stuff." I said, picking my way through the common room over to where Angelina and Alicia were sitting at one of the tables.

"Ugh, don't even remind me." Alicia said, banging her head down onto the table. I laughed and sat down, pulling over a chair from a different, unoccupied table. I put my feet up too, taking off my robe.

"Hey Vern, have you seen the guys anywhere?"

I shrugged at Alicia, "Nah, they're probably off somewhere, I haven't seen them since morning."

The three of us sat at the table talking and working on tough OWL review all evening, just having fun. I didn't tell anybody about my meeting with Dumbledore and McGonagall, or about making friends with the creepy dog who I'd named Snuff, I tried not to think about the suggestions that I was related to Sirius Black, as it was ridiculous, and I just had fun, for once.


	8. VictoryChemistry

**A/N: Just a quick poll here, please review or pm with your answer. I want this to be a trilogy, but I can't decide what years to fit into them, if you could pick between these three options, and either review, or pm, or whatever, that would be great. I might not choose what the majority votes for, but it would certainly help me.**

 **Option A: Book one: 5th &6th year, Book two: 7th year&war, Book three: Undecided**

 **Option B: Book one: 5th year, Book two: 6th year, Book three: 7th year**

 **Option C: Book one: 5th year, Book two: 7th year, Book three: war**

 **Thank you to the people that have already reviewed with their opinions, you have been a great help.**

 **Chapter 8: Victory=Chemistry**

"Aren't you excited! Oh my gosh I am _soo_ excited!" Alicia was bouncing around the dormitory, jumping on a mix of her bed and mine.

"Yes, I am very excited Alicia, but can you please get off of _my_ bed, and put a shirt on?" She blushed as I said this, and pulled on her pyjamas, looking a bit embarrassed at her whole outburst.

"Yes but quidditch finals Vern. Quidditch. Finals."

"Hmm, it's funny, you say those words like they mean something." I joked dryly, and automatically ducked from the pillow, that sure enough, came flying over my head at the exact right moment.

"Ladies, ladies, stop it." Angelina's voice came from behind the closed bathroom door, she opened it and stuck her head out, "but if I may say, you are being a definitive party pooper Veronica Smith."

I sighed as Alicia waved her hands in the air, "Exactly, this is the first time in like seven years or something that we even have a chance of winning the quidditch cup!"

"Yeah, I can get behind that, but I just hope you guys don't kill each other out on the pitch, some roguery is fine, but if what's been going on around the halls lately, it will be anything but that."

Angelina came fully out of the bathroom, drying her still wet braids while she talked, "Yeah, I know right! Have you heard about Lucy McGibbon and Beck Stupor? They had leeks coming out their ears! Their ears! Can you believe that?"

Shrugging, I picked up a potions book, "Unfortunately yes. I'm actually surprised you guys haven't faced more crap considering your two of the three star chasers."

The three of us walked down to the common room to hang out before bed, Alicia rolled her eyes as I said this, "We haven't faced any of it because nobody wants to be stupefied by Angie over here."

"Damn straight." She said, throwing Alicia a look over her shoulder.

"I wouldn't mind beating up some people who talk shit though." Alicia grumbled.

That ended the conversation there, as we walked into the main part of the common room, the noise affronted us. Everybody was pumped up and excited for the match the following day, Fred and George were making a mess in front of an audience, Katie Bell was laughing uproariously at a joke they had just said, Oliver Wood was muttering so fast his lips looked blurred, and Harry was sitting with Ron and Hermione, looking quite queasy.

Alicia and Angelina went off to join the masses, they knew better than to make me come with them, and instead left me to my own devices. I hadn't thought it would be like this, I thought I would be able to get a bit more homework done before bed, but alas, no. I still walked over to the couch though, and sat down in the remaining space to at least look like I was doing something. I pulled out my previously tucked under my arm potions book again, and let my eyes skim over the pages, not really reading anything I saw.

"There is always a time and place for homework Vern, and yes I am just saying that because I'm your friend, but even you have to agree, this is not that time." George was sitting beside me, the whole couch of first years mysteriously gone.

I put my book down with not much protest, and a grand flourish, and leaned back, "Then what, pray tell, should I do with my time?"

"Oh, hmm, gee, I don't know…" George trailed off, looking fake confused, before he sprung up, pulling me with him by my hand, "I know just what we'll do!"

I stumbled from being pulled off the couch so fast, and frowned, "What?"

"Have fun of course." George said, looking at my frown and giving me an equally sour look in return, "or wait, do you know how to do that?"

I scoffed, "Of course I know how to have fun, but the word's quite generic you know? You'll have to be more specific."

George rolled his eyes, "Just come and hang out with us, you never do, and I'm sure Fred would love to see you." He said, poking me in the arm.

I whirled around and put my hands on my hips, "First Alicia, and now you..." I said, referencing the fact that everybody kept saying that Fred would look forward to see me. It made no sense, he always looked forward to seeing me, just like I always looked forward to seeing him, because we were friends. But neither George nor Alicia were insinuating friendship.

"Follow me." I sharply said and lead the way out of the common room, it was after curfew, but we were going to be just outside the door, and I wasn't alone, and anyways, I always had a dog friend who stalked me to help me out if Sirius Black ever came calling for his long lost cousin or something. (I still wasn't sure I believed that, it seemed too far fetched.)

"Ooh, an adventure." George said, and followed me over.

"Alright Thomas the Tank Engine, calm down over there." I rolled my eyes and pushed open the portrait.

"Who?"

"Oh, he was a train that had adventures with his friends, it was a show on the telly I watched when I was little." George's face stayed blank.

"Telly? I think my Dad has mentioned those-?"

"Oh nevermind."

I leaned my back up against the wall beside the portrait, sticking my toe in the corner to prevent it from closing, as the fat lady currently wasn't there, though her creepy security trolls were, grunting and lounging just out of sight down the hall.

"I thought I asked you to have fun, I don't find standing in a hallway fun." George crossed his arms, "unless we're going on a late night illegal raid or something, then I think that _might_ qualify as fun."

I rolled my eyes, "Nevermind that, why does everybody keep insinuating that _something_ ," I put my hands up, forming quotations when I said it, "is happening between me and Fred?"

"I don't know what youre talking about." George sniffed, not meeting my eyes.

"Aha! You totally want me and your brother to get together!" I pointed at him, he looked quite taken aback.

"It was Alicia's idea!" He spat out, now I was taken aback, I tilted my head to the side.

"Alicia?!"

"Yeah, she and like, half the school, think that you and Fred, either are secretly dating, or should be."

"Half the school does _not_ think that me and Fred are secretly dating!" I incredulously said, sputtering just a bit.

George grimaced, "Sorry, but, yeah they do."

"Outrageous."

"I found it kind of funny actually, when I first heard, too bad both you and Fred are too clueless to notice."

"Preposterous."

"Ok, what is this challenge of the big words?"

"Why?" I had stopped my pacing, the portrait had shut, so we would probably have to wait for somebody to let us in, but I wasn't worried about that.

"Since like third year, everybody thought you guys liked each other." George shrugged.

"Third year?" I scoffed, "You don't seriously like anybody in third year! You have to wait until fourth year for the romance shit to start going down, you know?" I had liked Fred in third year though, just a little crush, and it faded rather fast, but the fact that apparently everybody picked up on it was the slightest bit embarrassing.

"No, I didn't know." George deadpanned, "Anyways, can we go back inside?" I nodded, inside my head I felt weird, people thought me and Fred liked each other? I know that I did two years ago, but thirteen year old Veronica was gone, I didn't like Fred anymore, probably.

Both George and I sighed at the same time as we stepped up the door, the Fat Lady still hadn't returned, I looked at him, "Sure, we can go inside, but only if we can knock hard enough for somebody to hear us."

 **111111111**

"That has to be illegal!" I shouted out from beside Lee, I could barely hear myself though, because Lee was shouting so loud into the microphone about the current events.

Lee took a break from shouting about Flint attacking Angelina to look at me, "Yeah but we'll get a penalty throw-" Lee was cut of as the whistle was blown, we both whipped our heads back around to see Madam Hooch berating a disgruntled looking Fred, who had apparently hit Flint with his beater's bat.

"Come off it!" We heard him howl to Madam hooch as she declared two penalties, one to Slytherin, and one to Gryffindor. Luckily Alicia Scored and Oliver saved, the score was still 20-0 and the game was getting bloodier still. McGonagall hadn't once really tried to stop Lee from saying anything like she normally did because she too, was yelling at the game, her hat having come udon, a clear sign of stress.

Alicia got her head grabbed by Montague next, so Katie got to take, and win, the penalty given.

"This is ridiculous!" Lee exclaimed, shaking his head at me, stepping back from the microphone.

"I have legitimately never seen such an awful match, the rules might as well not exist."

"Then they would kill each other Ms Smith." McGonagall said from my left, her brow furrowed and her mouth a thin line etched into her face.

About ten minutes of absolute chaos passed before I looked at the score again, "Holy shit when did we score three times?!"

"I don't know, I barely saw it myself." Lee shrugged.

"I hope you're keeping score right." I said worriedly, this was the last game, determining the winner of the quidditch cup. My thoughts got cut off when yet another uproar from down on the pitch caused Lee to sigh, in what sounded like despair.

Which was understandable as it was the fact that Oliver wood had gotten two bludgers in a row right to the stomach, and was now slowly sinking down to ground, I gasped, "Oh my _god_! Now _that_ has to be illegal!"

"Yeah for once," Lee muttered, adding ten points to Gryffindors score as Angelina scored the resulting penalty.

It was nonstop action, everybody was hanging over their seats, Lee and I were trying to see what was going on, but as everything was happening so fast, we both had to lean over the railing of the teachers booth just to help Lee commentate properly.

"That looks like cobbing?" I yelled out to Lee, and he bodily put himself in my position.

"Nah." I sighed and kept watch for more things that just one person couldn't spot.

"And it seems that Harry Potter has spotted the snitch!" Lee yelled as Harry zoomed upwards, literally inches from our leaning faces, making my hair blow back with the speed of his firebolt. We watched as Draco Malfoy followed him on his noticeable slower Nimbus 2001, and everybody followed the two with their eyes.

Since they went sort of behind and over the teachers booth, Lee had to lean out the side to keep commentating, I leaned backwards over the railing to get a nice view, I shielded my eyes from the bright sky to see them. When I saw Malfoy literally grab the tail of Harry's firebolt, I actually re-shielded my eyes to recheck if I had seen it right, almost everybody in the stadium screaming out in protest, including myself, confirmed that it actually happened.

Madam Hooch flew past, screaming all the while, half the Gryffindor team was swarming like bees, and both McGonagall and Lee had lost it and were both yelling, only Lee's was being broadcasted across the pitch though, as he seemed to have forgotten that he was holding a microphone. His voice was fading in and out as he waved his arms around.

"BULLSHIT!" I yelled out, it was drowned among all the other protests, but we all quieted as Madam Hooch blew the whistle for a furious looking Alicia to take the penalty shot. As one of Alicia's best friends though, I could see that she was positively fuming, and wasn't surprised when she threw too hard and the quaffle spun off course.

Angelina scored next, bringing it to 80-20, We had a substantial lead, and just as Lee was yelling out the current score Malfoy went rocketing after a gold glimmer, I barely saw it, it was so quick, but Harry soon followed. Every Gryffindor was on the edge of our seat, primed to win the quidditch cup, it all depended on if Harry could beat Malfoy to the snitch or not.

Harry edged in front of Malfoy, and the two were jostling each other around as they both raced straight across the pitch, getting closer and closer to the snitch, I could already feel the scream building in my throat, and the stands took a collective breath as Harry reached out with two hands, I don't think anybody was moving on the pitch. Oliver Wood even almost let in the quaffle, he lazily caught it last minute though, never taking his eyes off Harry.

You would have thought a bomb went off. It was a thunderclap of instantaneous noise as Harry pulled out of the dive, six scarlett players crashed into him and they all sank to the ground as a huge bunch. The whole Gryffindor house, and basically all of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff too, all trying to go out onto the field at once. Wave after wave of screaming students flooded the quidditch pitch, myself and Lee included. We tore down the stairs faster than everybody but McGonagall, who was sobbing into a Gryffindor flag in the background, her dignity gone.

I grabbed Lee's hand as we went into the crowd, we both pushed and shoved to the middle, trying not to lose each other in the process, I let go of Lee when Alicia and Angelina saw me, still screaming, they fought their way over, and encompassed me in a sweaty hug, I didn't care though. We jumped up and down, I could hear them screaming in my ear, something about, 'finally' but I couldn't make it out. They tugged me onwards to the rest of the team, Oliver was crying, and Harry looked rather stunned by it all, just standing still, smiling hugely in the midst of mass chaos.

I let out a soft scream when I felt myself getting picked up and spun in a circle, reminiscent of the last quidditch win, I turned around and saw the face I expected, Fred.

"You did it!"

"We did it!"

He looked the most over joyously happy that I'd seen him in the longest time, his bright red hair was in disarray, and his whole, usually pale and freckled, face was slightly red from the wind and exertion, he had dropped his beater's bat when he came to see me though, as I could see it lying on the ground just a few feet behind him.

The crowd was moving, going to accept the quidditch cup, we moved with it, Fred linked arms with me so that we wouldn't drift apart. "I'm just so- ugh!" Fred exclaimed laughing just a bit. Someone would have thought him crazy if he weren't in these specific circumstances. But I don't think he would have looked crazy no matter where he was at the moment, just outrageously happy.

"You're so happy I know!" We reached where the award was being handed out, "You have to go get what you did this for!" I yelled out, he looked at me, and leaning up I kissed his cheek as sort of a farewell, I wasn't sure why, but it just seemed the right thing to do.

"Meet me later ok?" Fred yelled, I had let go of his arm, so he was being swept away a bit, "In the common room! We'll have fun!" I laughed and waved, watching his head as he turned and met up with George and the rest of the team. I let the pushing crowd kind of push me away, and walked up the castle, enjoying the nice day, as ninety-five percent of my friends were on the quidditch team, I didn't walk back with anybody, but it was fine. There was a certain bounce to my step, maybe it was because we had just won the quidditch cup for the first time in seven years, or, maybe it was something else.

 **A/N: Just another quick note, I am sorry this took me so long to get, up, I've been a bit overwhelmed recently, but I think the next one will be out faster.**


	9. I Don't Know?

**A/N: Just a quick poll here, please review or pm with your answer. I want this to be a trilogy, but I can't decide what years to fit into them, if you could pick between these three options, and either review, or pm, or whatever, that would be great. I might not choose what the majority votes for, but it would certainly help me.**

 **Option A: Book one: 5th &6th year, Book two: 7th year&war, Book three: Undecided**

 **Option B: Book one: 5th year, Book two: 6th year, Book three: 7th year**

 **Option C: Book one: 5th year, Book two: 7th year, Book three: war**

 **Thank you to the people that have already reviewed with their opinions, you have been a great help.**

 **Chapter 9: I Don't Know?**

"Ms. Smith, you're next please." I got up from the wooden bench outside of McGonagall's office, we were talking about job options and planned courses for the next two years after OWLs.

I walked into her office and sat down. I hadn't really talked much to her after the whole Sirius Black incident, and I had never been called back to Dumbledore's office to revisit it.

"So, I assume you understand why you're here." McGonagall started, shuffling some parchment around on her desk, "so, Ms. Smith, what would you like to do after Hogwarts?"

I twisted the ring on my finger nervously, I never liked to think about my future that much, it gave me anxiety. "Uh, I don't really know Professor, I've only thought about it maybe once or twice."

"Well, if you wanted to, you can technically do anything you want, since your marks are rather exemplary." I now noticed that the papers McGonagall was shuffling through were my final exams and report cards from the last five years of school. "What I would recommend for you Ms. Smith, is some form of helping people. I've always recognized you to be the protective or intelligent type and I think a job such as healer, or maybe security personnel would do you good."

I faltered, "We can put healer on my list, that sounds alright," McGonagall wrote something down on a little slip of parchment, "but, with all due respect, I don't want to stand around being a security guard or something all day, that's just boring." McGonagall nodded, and wrote something else down.

"What do you like to do Veronica? In your spare time?" I was forever being startled by teachers using my first name, so it took me a second and a half longer to get my act together and reply.

"Well, I like researching stuff, learning new things, having fun, hanging out with friends and stuff." It was an odd question to ask; what do you do in your spare time? But I answered it with all the clarity I could, and watched as McGonagall scribbled even more stuff down.

"A detective, or a private investigator." Her words took a moment for me to process.

"What?"

"I'm sure you heard me . The ministry has more people working undercover cases as detectives and investigators than you would believe, and I don't recommend this to most people, but for you I think it would suit you very much. You are more intelligent than you realize."

I was stunned getting a compliment like that from stoic Professor McGonagall, but I took it in stride. "Thanks Professor, but, how would I go about getting this job?"

"Well, usually it's applied for, like a muggle university, then you either get accepted to the training program, or you don't. Training lasts for two years, before you start getting assigned cases. To even be qualified to apply though, you must achieve perfect marks in all classes. They only take the best of the best."

I felt my resolve harden as she spoke, if anybody could do this, it was me. "What classes would I have to get perfect in?"

"Potions, charms, transfiguration, astronomy, herbology, beginners medicine, a NEWT level course taught by Madam Pomfrey, and defense against the dark arts." McGonagall listed off from a little chart in front of her.

I sat back, shocked, "But, that's seven courses! Usually NEWT students only take four or five?"

McGonagall sat back, looking at me from over the top of her spectacles, "This is elite Ms. Smith, and as well as taking these courses, you will have to score practically perfect on these OWL and NEWT exams when that time comes."

"Well, Professor, this is a lot, I'm not sure if I'm really cut out-"

"You get O's in every class but astronomy. Just that alone should tell you you are competent. What I say is that if you have earned an O in Professor Snape's class, you can do anything." That made me smile.

"Alright Ms. Smith, I think you have herbology next if I read your timetable correctly, I'll sign you up for the appropriate courses for next year."

She didn't leave room for a reply as I was ushered out of the office and Alicia was called in next, since it went in alphabetical order.

I was walking out to the greenhouses when Ron stopped me in the middle of the lawns.

"Vern! Vern over here!" I walked over, wondering what he wanted.

"Hey Ron, what do you need?" Ron's eyebrows furrowed.

"The case? I was wondering if you've done any research, me and Hermione have been, and the appeal is set on the sixth, so right after exams, I know you've got OWL's, so it'll all be done." As Ron said all this, a feeling akin to what getting a ball of lead shoved down your throat would feel like struck me.

The appeal, the hippogriff, my research, I had forgot. The stuff about Black, my OWLs, I couldn't believe I'd forgotten about what I'd promised to help with! This was the death of an animal! "Oh, yeah, that's great! Thanks for telling me Ron, I'll have all my notes ready, meet at the front doors ok?" I wasn't going to let Ron know I'd forgotten, so instead I probably made things worse and lied. Oh well, what's done is done.

Ron smiled and waved, "Alright, thanks Vern! See you later!"

I sighed, "Well shit."

 **1111111111**

I was pretty prepared for exams, they were next week, and lasted two weeks for us unfortunate fifth years. Even though I was prepared , you could never be too prepared when you needed to get top marks. So why, oh why, was I researching hippogriffs at nine on a Saturday night?!

I was getting places, being a prefect meant I had access to the milder parts of the restricted section, luckily, hippogriff behavior 101 existed there.

I had about a page and a half of notes, and was going to assemble them tomorrow afternoon, so I could study all of tomorrow night for my monday morning charms exam. At ten, Madam Pince kicked me out, and I took a detour up to the common room, I shouldn't have, but honestly, when did I do anything that I was supposed to.

Shockingly, I actually saw someone on the way up, and no, it wasn't Snuff.

"Vern?"

"Fred?"

We met up before the last staircase to the common room, Fred was going down, and me up.

"Where are you going?"

"Where are you coming back from?"

"The library." I deadpanned.

"Oh, I was going to the kitchens, wanna come?"

I looked at my huge book bag, bursting with my hippogriff notes, maybe I should have some fun. "Yeah, sure, let me just put this away." Fred nodded and grinned as I bounded up the stairs to throw my books down.

I came down and we walked down to the kitchens, taking mainly back passages to not get caught by patrolling teachers. These days prefects didn't actually patrol at night, it was deemed too unsafe, and even though I never went in the first place, I hadn't had a curfew patrol since the first Sirius Black incident when he slashed up the Fat Lady.

The elves were as welcoming as always, and got me and Fred just what we wanted. A few chocolate chip cookies for him, and whatever dessert they wanted for me. I ended up getting a slice of chocolate cake. It looked pretty good.

We didn't eat it in the kitchens, and instead took to walking up to the main bell tower. Nobody came up here unless it was for maintenance, and since the tower was open to the outside, the warm breeze promising summer was rolling through.

We sat on the ledge, our feet dangling over the edge, behind us, the giant pendulum swung back and forth, silent but steady, and never stopping, just counting the time forever.

Silence never felt uncomfortable between me and Fred, we knew each other so well, that silence was just another form of talking. It communicated companionship to me.

"Hey Vern, have you ever liked anybody?" Oh no, where was this going? I wasn't up for late night talks with Fred Weasley, especially since with everything happening recently, I actually thought I was starting to like him again.

"Uh, yeah, duh, of course Fred." _Of course it was you you dipshit._ No, I shouldn't say that.

"Did, you ever tell them?"

"No, are you kidding? That's the whole point of crushes, to just have fun liking someone for a little while because you're too afraid to actually confront them." Fred snorted.

"Wow, that's specific, I'm starting to think I asked the right person." He joked.

"Well, why do you ask? That's a pretty specific question." I countered.

"Fair enough, I assumed you've guessed this, but I have a crush." Fred didn't meet my eyes as he said this, and it made my own crush develop that little bit more.

"Surprise, surprise." Could it be me? Maybe? No. We were friends, best friends, and I would be fooling myself if I thought any more of it.

"Well, should I tell her?"

"Why not, honestly it shouldn't matter, it just kind of does." I said, twisting the ring some more. If I kept up this habit, my whole right ring finger was going to be a giant callous.

"I'm afraid she'll laugh at me, or think it's a joke or something." Fred smiled, "and I don't think my super manly pride could take that."

I wanted to discreetly ask if it was me, could I say it in a joke? Was it better left untouched? Would I fuck everything up if I just suddenly confronted him about it? I had my suspicions, we hugged twice, he gave me a _ring_! But what if I was looking to far into it? What when we hugged it was just heat of the moment quidditch match? What if when we held hands up to the castle that one time was just an accident? Could I risk that?

"Is it me?" Apparently, I could, or maybe I just had really bad self control.

"Wh-wh-what?" Fred did a triple stutter and cookie went flying into the air.

"You heard me."

"Oh-oh," Fred paused, he avoided my face, the fact that he had delayed this far meant that the familiar lead ball was back to rolling around my gut.

"It's fine, don't worry about it, I shouldn't have asked, it's not my business." I looked down.

"You're my best friend, of course you would ask."

"Yeah of course, bff's for life." Fred looked kind of awkward, and kind of confused as I said this. I felt stupid, and ashamed.

"Look I'm going to bed alright, I'll see you tomorrow." I left, tapping my dish with my wand to make it disappear, and taking the familiar route back to the common room. The only difference from every other time though, was that this time I couldn't have felt like more of an idiot.


	10. Scabbers?

**A/N: Just a quick poll here, please review or pm with your answer. I want this to be a trilogy, but I can't decide what years to fit into them, if you could pick between these three options, and either review, or pm, or whatever, that would be great. I might not choose what the majority votes for, but it would certainly help me.**

 **Option A: Book one: 5th &6th year, Book two: 7th year&war, Book three: Undecided**

 **Option B: Book one: 5th year, Book two: 6th year, Book three: 7th year**

 **Option C: Book one: 5th year, Book two: 7th year, Book three: war**

 **Thank you to the people that have already reviewed with their opinions, you have been a great help.**

 **Chapter 10: Scabbers?**

I didn't talk to Fred the next day, and as OWLs rolled around, I didn't talk to him much then either.

We had to perform a written test in the great hall, then, instead of the practical tests happening with our individual professors, they were happening with ministry officials. Let's just say it made it about ten times more nerve wracking and difficult. I thought I did alright in charms, not finding any faults with my own performance.

That night the tower was silent, not even Fred or George dared to make a sound, and were studying for once too. That was more surprising than any bonus question could be. Angelina, Alicia, and I barely even said good night when we went to bed, my brain felt like it was going to explode as I went over transfiguration diagrams for tomorrow, I knew that was always challenging.

Surprisingly though, it wasn't that bad, maybe I was too used to McGonagall's super hard tests, that when we got one actually for our level, it seemed very easy.

When that was over with, all the fifth years took a collective sigh, we had all of Wednesday before our next exam, which was potions on Thursday, then astronomy on Friday night.

The days flew by, and through many tiring exams, including a rather strange one from the herbology department, they were done. Everybody was celebrating the end of OWLs, and in a sense I was too. But, Hermione had stopped me earlier today, and said that apparently the appeal had already happened, on short notice, which meant my notes were useless and Buckbeak the hippogriff was going to get killed.

Hermione had told me that her, Ron, and Harry were going down, by a way she wouldn't tell me though, and said if I wanted to come, I would have to find my own way. I wasn't going to go, why would I? I advised Hermione from going too, it just wasn't safe, but I knew she would anyways, those three were just too stubborn.

That lead me to sitting in the common room with my five best friends, trying and pretending to have a good time. But inside I was kind of upset.

"Hey, that potions exam was so hard!" Lee complained, acting all dramatic.

"Yeah but the transfiguration one? That was so easy!" Alicia exclaimed.

George snorted, "That's cause McGonagall makes each test about two years higher in level than it should be."

"Yeah, we even found it easy, which is saying something considering we studied for what? Four hours combined?"

"At the most." Fred and George bantered.

Angelina looked up, "Oh my god what if it was easy because they tricked us and secretly they hoped for us to fail!"

Each one of us gave her a look, "I think you're looking just a bit too far into it Angie." Fred said, patting her on the shoulder.

Oh, my god! Angelina was who Fred liked! Maybe? I don't know. I had to stop looking so far into it, it didn't matter, and I wasn't going to stop telling myself that until it was true, because currently, it so wasn't, and currently, I felt jealousy rear its ugly, crazy head.

Okay, maybe I did like Fred.

 **111111111**

The rest of the afternoon past in dreadful unexcitement, nobody was really allowed out on the grounds, even though it was nice outside, just because the dementors guarding the school were untrustworthy.

I wasn't studying anymore, which was a weird feeling leading off from OWLs, and rumour had it, even Percy was going to join in on the big party tonight in the common room to celebrate the end of exam season. I wasn't very happy though.

It could have been the mix of the fact that the hippogriff was going to be executed because Draco Malfoy was a little shit, and there was nothing I could do about that, I tried. Or, it could be the fact that I was reaching the pinnacle of my high school crush, and like always, one's crush, can not like oneself back.

Whatever.

I found myself back on the bell tower, not with Fred this time, just alone. Since it wasn't the middle of the night, and there were actual people walking around, I couldn't sit on the ledge and swing my feet around. I'd probably give somebody a heart attack if I did that.

From the bell tower I could see everything, but mainly Hagrid's hut, and by extension, the hippogriff, in the garden, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione through the window. Hermione was crying, it made me feel so awful that I stopped looking, because I didn't really want to cry either, and when I see other people cry, it makes me cry too.

I knew they were going to go down, and I have no idea how they even got there without being caught, it was nearly sundown, I don't even think I as a prefect could walk that close to the forest without getting caught by McGonagall and getting a month's worth of Sundays in detention.

I saw my dog friend, Snuff, he was sitting still, looking at Hagrid's hut, just like I was, which sent off red warning signs in my head, what was he doing? I hadn't even seen him around lately, and to just show up, looking like he was spying on somebody, it was weird.

I turned and left the bell tower, running up to the dorms, I changed out of my uniform into some jeans and a t-shirt, and was planning some route of getting out there without getting caught when I literally ran into the solution.

"Watch where you're going!" I snapped, peeling myself off the common room floor, hoping nobody had seen me take a tumble.

"Calm down crazy lady."

"Fred?" Deja-vu washed through me, of two times when me and Fred had met up like this, once two weeks ago, and once at Christmas. It seemed to happen often.

"That's my name. Where are you going by the way?" He asked referring to my change of clothes, I was shocked he even noticed.

"Out, that's what I need to ask you about, it's almost dark, so do you think you could create a small diversion for me? Just to keep teachers away from the great hall?" Fred looked confused,

"I don't know where you're going, and I'm not going to ask. But yeah, I guess I can do it. It's kind of out of my way though, I'd have to do it in the back of dungeons, in Snape territory for it to attract the most attention." I gave him a look, "What? I don't want to sacrifice that much. Whatever you're doing must be really good, or you owe me."

I sighed, "Look, it is a bit much to ask, so I'll owe you anyway, I'll buy you lunch at The Three Broomsticks or something."

I knew the look that came onto Fred's face too well, he wanted something specific, and wasn't going to create any diversion until I had agreed to it. "I don't have time for this Fred, I'll owe you whatever, and whenever, can you just please create this diversion for me?"

Fred grinned, a bit triumphantly, "Yeah, alright, see you later Vern! Don't miss the party, it starts at eleven!" Then he practically ran out of the common room. I followed more slowly, taking my time. I passed the staff room, and when I peered into it, I didn't see any teachers. So I knew I was safe.

Then I started running, I hope I hadn't missed Snuff in whatever he was doing, I raced down the final set of stairs, and out a sort of side door that wasn't observed as carefully, probably because it was pretty near to the whomping willow, even Fred and George respected that tree.

I took a hard left to avoid the trees rampaging path, and down the hills on the edge of the grounds I saw Snuff, not before I saw four people walking down to Hagrid's hut. The minister of magic, some guy with an axe, Professor Dumbledore, and some short guy were all making their way down the path, probably about fifteen feet to my left.

I panicked and literally dove behind one of the giant boulders that littered the grounds so that I couldn't be seen. It hurt like a bitch as I thudded down, and I tried to keep myself from crying out in pain. Then, after a few minutes, I had a real reason to cry, the wind was moving in my direction, and I couldn't miss it as I heard the thud of an axe.

After a few more minutes, I poked just my head out around the side of the rock, Snuff was gone, so was Buckbeak? Professor Dumbledore and the other men looked very confused, as was I, what the hell had happened to the giant hippogriff body that should have still been in the garden. I suppose it was probably good that I wasn't seeing it though.

I heard the bickering of what sounded like Harry, Ron and Hermione. I got up, and dusted myself in the dimming light, when I looked for them though, I couldn't actually see them, and Snuff was still MIA.

I followed the sounds of their voices and before long, felt a swish of a tail on my leg, looking down I saw Hermione's cat, Crookshanks.

The sounds stopped, then continued at a more intense rate as Crookshanks got closer. I ran forward, wondering how the trio were invisible, and I tried to pick up Crookshanks at the same time. But it was too late, a rat I recognized as Scabbers appeared on the ground from nowhere, the cat bolted, Ron threw something off of him and came into view, and we both simultaneously bolted after the cat.

It was several things, happening very fast, Ron going after Scabbers, me after Crookshanks, trying to help, and I could hear what sounded like Harry and Hermione running after me.

At the same time, the cat faltered and I jumped for it, grabbing the cat, ignoring it's flailing scratching claws, I watched as Ron picked up Scabbers.

"What the hell do you three think you're doing?!" I hissed, desperately trying to hold on to the cat and look for Dumbledore and the minister at the same time.

No one answered me though, probably because they were all looking at something behind me, I turned, and running towards me at full speed, was Snuff. I dropped the cat and didn't have time to react as he literally jumped right into me, I was blown back a good few feet onto the ground, lying flat out, my chest aching as Snuff just did a somersault over me and continued running.

Hermione gasped, "Oh my god! Veronica!" as I shakily pulled myself up, holding my ribs. Harry and Ron had run further ahead, and I saw Snuff biting Ron's arm, while Harry tried without success to pull him off. Hermione and I exchanged a look and started running up to them, I was wheezing due to my chest pain, but Ron was in danger, and suddenly, I didn't trust Snuff at all anymore.

"Harry watch out!" I screamed as Hermione and I stopped and realized where we were, the whomping willow, and one of its branches was about to smack Harry in the face. He didn't hear me though, and was flung back as branch whacked him upside the head, Hermione ran forward to try and get Ron, who was now being dragged freely into a gap in the roots of the tree by Snuff.

I grabbed hermione from going too far, she was still whacked with a branch though, I managed to dodge the same branch, and I pulled Hermione back, out of the reach of the branches, as Harry ran over to where we were. The three of us just stood there helpless as Ron, still fiercely struggling, disappeared into the base of the whomping willow.

"Come on! We have to get help!" I said, feeling very in charge as the oldest person here, Harry quickly had the upper hand though.

"That dog is big enough to eat him! We haven't got time-"

Hermione interrupted, "What and you think were going to get through that without help?" She pulled Harry back by the arm as he tried to dart through the branches and failed miserably, almost getting hit again.

"Guys look!" I whispered as the yellow eyes of Crookshanks came into view. Both Harry and Hermione froze as he darted through the branches effortlessly and placed his paw on some spot at the base of the tree. Instantly, the tree stopped moving, it was perfectly still, I drew my wand, just in case.

"How did-? Crookshanks-?" Hermione asked as Harry shook his head.

"He's friends with that dog, I've seen them around." Oh, so now Harry was seeing the dog too? The pieces were starting to fit together, and I had a horrible suspicion I knew what was happening, and if I was right, we needed to save Ron, and fast.

"Come on let's go, you two slide down first." I said, ushering them to where Crookshanks was already sliding down into the roots of the tree, first Harry went, then Hermione, then me. It was a long damp tunnel, and I hit myself off of roots a few times, making my ribs ache, and me gasp out in pain.

We followed Crookshanks down a tunnel, and started walking, Hermione broke the silence first.

"Vern, what were you even doing out there? And, why did you help us? I would have more expected you to go and get help."

"Well I was outside because I saw the dog acting suspicious, and I kinda sorta know him-"

"You know the dog?!" Harry interrupted, his face incredulous.

I nodded, "Only kinda, and I wanted to know what he was up to, and then halfway down there I heard you guys and here we are."

"That's really nice of you to help us, we probably wouldn't have been able to save Ron if it was just the two of us going in there." Hermione said as we continued walking, I couldn't see her, but I imagined her eyes were shining with worry.

The events of the last three years flashed in my mind, "Nah, you guys could probably do it."

As I stopped speaking, the tunnel sloped upwards all of a sudden, and the three of us began to walk even quicker, me ignoring the sharp stabbing pain that wasn't getting any better.

All of a sudden the tunnel twisted, and pushing forward, I held out my wand, and hopped out of the tunnel, into a rather dusty room, I helped pull up both Harry and Hermione into the room too, we all had our wands out, and no one spoke as we surveyed the room around us.

The room was dusty, and every piece of furniture was smashed to bits, the wallpaper was peeling, and there was an open door leading off into a dark shadowy hallway. The whole room creaked slightly, as if it was protesting just us being here.

Hermione gasped, "Oh my gosh," she whispered, grabbing Harry's arm, "I think we're in the shrieking shack!" I agreed with that, and nodded.

Harry looked around the room more closely, and pointed to a large chair, that had pieces of stuffing ripped out of it, "Ghosts didn't do that." he said slowly.

I pointed to the wall, where huge claw marks were scored across, too big to even belong to Snuff, "Or that." In that moment a loud creak was heard, and the three of us jumped, something had moved upstairs. We moved as quick as we could to the stairs, while still trying to be quiet.

Everything was covered in inches of dust, except for a wide stripe in the middle of the stairs, and as we got to the top, the long hallway. Harry and Hermione turned the lights out on their wands as we crept towards the only open door.

One last look, and Harry kicked the door open, we rushed inside to see a giant four poster bed, with Crookshanks sleeping on it, and Ron on the ground, clutching his broken, bleeding leg.

"Oh my god, Ron!" The three of us dashed to him.

"Where's the dog?" Harry asked.

Ron spoke, "Not a dog."

"What?" We asked at once.

"He's the dog… animagus…"

A snap echoed from behind us as the door closed, we turned to where Ron was pointing.

He had dark, filthy, and matted hair, it hung to his shoulders, and his light gray eyes, ones that matched Snuff's, shone out from his face. He looked like a corpse, bone thin, with waxy skin pulled over his features, giving them a ghoulish appearance. White hot fear raced through me.

He looked at me with an odd expression, I couldn't tell what it was but it scared me. All I knew was that I was looking into the face of the man that had haunted my nightmares for months.

It was Sirius Black.


	11. A Revelation

**A/N: Just a quick poll here, please review or pm with your answer. I want this to be a trilogy, but I can't decide what years to fit into them, if you could pick between these three options, and either review, or pm, or whatever, that would be great. I might not choose what the majority votes for, but it would certainly help me.**

 **Option A: Book one: 5th &6th year, Book two: 7th year&war, Book three: Undecided**

 **Option B: Book one: 5th year, Book two: 6th year, Book three: 7th year**

 **Option C: Book one: 5th year, Book two: 7th year, Book three: war**

 **Thank you to the people that have already reviewed with their opinions, you have been a great help.**

 **Chapter 11: A Revelation**

I didn't think I had that bad of luck, I always got good marks, never got into any serious trouble, despite having Fred, George, and Lee for best friends, and I considered myself actually pretty lucky. Which is why I totally didn't expect for this to be happening to me.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron? Yeah, their luck was the worst of the worst. Those three got into so much trouble every year, and somehow didn't manage to die, that they had the weirdest combination of good and bad luck I've ever seen. But me? No.

I hated myself for being so stupid, I had literally been with Sirius Black, alone, several times in this school year. Given, he had been a dog, so I suppose it wasn't really my fault, but still. I did wonder why he hadn't done anything to me though, maybe he had a flair for the dramatics, and wanted there to be an audience when he killed four teenagers.

"Expelliarmus!" He hissed, pointing what was probably Ron's wand at the three of us, his voice sounding unused. Harry and Hermione's wands flew out of their hands, but faster than even I thought I could manage, I stepped forward.

"Protego!" At least I still had my wand, he looked mildly confused.

"Why don't you surrender now, and give everybody's wands back." I said, my voice quivering with fear, I was trying to reason with a murderer, and even the trio weren't saying anything. I either really belonged in Gryffindor, or I was just insanely stupid for trying to face off with a full blown wizard.

"What?" He laughed, showing his awful yellow teeth, "You're going to fight me?" He cast another expelliarmus, but this one was too fast, my wand went spiralling up and out my reach, right into his grubby hands. If actually got out of here alive, the smudges on that thing would never come off.

I backed up, standing with Harry and Hermione, I knew I couldn't have won an actual duel with him, but I at least hoped to last more than thirty seconds. His eyes went off me, the curious expression gone, now he was focused on Harry.

"I knew you'd come to save your friend." He took a step forward and we took a step back, "Your father would have done the same for me. Brave of you to not run for a teacher, it makes things so much easier, I'm sort of… grateful." Wait, Harry's father and Sirius Black knew each other, and were friends? At least that's what he seemed to imply, Harry didn't deny it though.

Instead, he did something incredibly stupid, and lunged forwards, Hermione and I grabbed him, holding him back as he struggled, Harry seemed like such a mild guy, but he was seething.

"Harry, no!" Hermione whispered, her face alight with worry, Ron stood up, and I held on to him instead, he was literally swaying, and his face was a mild shade of green.

"If you're going to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too!" He said, motioning to himself, Hermione, and me.

Something flickered in Black's empty eyes, "You better lay down, that leg needs rest." I was literally the only thing keeping Ron up from the floor now.

"For once, I agree Ron." I hissed quietly, but he didn't stop.

"Didn't you hear me? You'll have to kill all four of us!" I grimaced, he was clinging to me painfully at this point, and I was still holding on to Harry at the same time.

"There will only be one murder tonight." Black said softly, and then Harry exploded, I had to use my body weight to keep him back.

"Why's that?" He spat, trying desperately to wrench himself free of me and Hermione, "Didn't care last time did you? That you killed thirteen people to get to Pettigrew? Huh? Have you gone soft in azkaban or something?"

"Harry I swear to god!" I said, I don't know how a skinny thirteen year old was breaking free of two peoples grips, but he was.

"HE KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!" With a final pull, he broke free, lunging towards Black, without even a wand. This would go under the, 'He's so brave it's stupid.' category, but there was nothing we could do as somehow, he knocked Black over into the wall.

We were all screaming and yelling too much to make sense of the matter, somehow, I nailed Black in the eye with my foot, and Ron tried to pick up the wands, while Hermione tried to push them away from each other. It was a tangle of bodies, and by the time I got out, the cat was across the room, Harry's arm was bleeding, and he stood up, having somehow found his way to his wand, which he was clutching.

"Get out of the way!" He shouted, and honestly, I didn't need telling twice, my lip was bleeding, and I could feel a bruise forming on my jaw from where Black had defended himself after I kicked him.

We scrambled to the side, and Ron literally looked like he was going to pass out, I was surprised he hadn't already.

"Oh, first Veronica, and now you? Are you going to kill me Harry?" He whispered, it sent shivers down my spine when he mentioned my name.

"How?" Hermione whispered, but I shushed her, I would explain later.

"You killed my parents." Harry said, breathing heavily, but quite still.

"I don't deny it, but you need to know the full story, all of you." When he said that, he looked me right in the eye.

Everybody was silent, we waited for Harry to make the first move, seconds in silence ticked by, then the sound of feet was heard from downstairs.

"WE'RE UP HERE!" Hermione screamed. I joined in.

"IT'S SIRIUS BLACK- WE'RE UP HERE, HELP US!" Black made a startled movement, and the footsteps thundered closer.

The door burst open with a shower of red sparks, and Professor Lupin came charging in, within seconds he looked at all of us, shouted expelliarmus, and all four wands, which were lying in places across the room, flew into his hand.

He turned, looking quite formidable, not at all like the mild professor I'd been with all year. "Where is he Sirius?"

There was some hidden emotion in his voice, and Black raised his hand and pointed, past me, Harry, and Hermione, and directly at Ron. I was so confused.

"He hasn't revealed himself- no." Lupin said, his voice darkening, "You switched didn't you, without telling, so you could protect-" Lupin cut himself off as Sirius nodded.

"Professor, what's going on?" Harry asked, but his voice died, and a pit dropped in my stomach, as Remus Lupin held out a hand to Sirius Black, and embraced him like a brother.

"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Hermione screamed.

"Hermione please."

"You and him?"

"Hermione calm down-"

"I didn't tell anyone! I've been covering for you all year!"

"Hermione listen to me please!" Lupin shouted, his voice pleading, I was actually willing to listen, if only to stall for time.

"NO! Harry don't trust him, he's been helping Black into the castle, he wants you dead too! _He's a werewolf!_ " Me and Ron exchanged a look, the both of us were missing something here.

"A werewolf?" I said, looking at Hermione strangely, but no one seemed to hear me except Black, who nodded as we made eye contact, I looked away as fast as I could.

Lupin looked remarkably calm, but when he spoke, his voice was dark, and dangerous, "Not up to your usual perfect standard Hermione, only one out of three." Hermione and Harry made a move to speak again, but Lupin just held up a finger and they both fell silent. "I do not want to kill Harry, and I have not been helping Sirius into the castle. I am, however, a werewolf." An odd shiver passed over his scarred face.

Ron tried to get up again, but fell back, Lupin made his way over, and while I stood my ground, Ron shrank back, "Get away from me, you _werewolf_!" Lupin seemed to grit his teeth, and with effort, turned away, facing Hermione.

"So, how long have you known?" His voice sounded forced.

"Ever since Professor Snape set that essay." Hermione whispered.

"Ah," Lupin sneered, I'd never seen that expression on his usually kind face, "He'll be delighted. Did you realize I was always sick at the full moon? Or did you see that my boggart changed into it?"

"Both." Hermione whispered, looking quite nervous.

"You really are the cleverest witch of your age." Lupin said, forcing out a laugh.

"But I'm not." She whispered, "If I had been just a bit cleverer, I'd have told everyone what you are!"

"But they know."

Ron gasped, "Are they mad?"

Lupin shrugged, "Some thought so."

"Some thought right you mean." I said, stepping forward, closer to Lupin, he looked at me, a sadness in his eyes.

"YOU WERE HELPING HIM THE WHOLE TIME!" Harry yelled, pointing at Sirius.

Lupin finally broke eye contact with me, rolling his eyes a bit as he did, "I have _not_ been helping Sirius!" He took all four wands, and threw them back to their owners, how he knew which was which I don't know, but I caught mine, stunned. "You're armed, we're not, listen."

No one said a word.

"I knew sirius was here due to the map."

"You can work it?" Harry and I said at the same time, we both looked at eachother in confusion.

"Of course." Lupin said, waving his hand, "I'm Moony, I helped write it." I felt my jaw drop.

"The important thing is, I was watching it, and saw you Hermione and Ron go out to Hagrid's hut before his hippogriff died, the only issue is, is that you left the hut with one more person than you came in with."

"What?" We all said at the same time.

"Could I have a look at your rat?" Lupin asked Ron, holding his hand out.

"What the hell does Scabbers have to do with any of this?" I shouted, throwing my hands up in the air.

"Everything, now please Ron, the rat." Ron hesitated, but went to pull out a thrashing Scabbers from his robes, by the tail. Lupin moved closer.

"What does my rat have to do with this though?" Ron asked.

"That's not a rat." Sirius Black suddenly croaked.

"Course it's a rat." Ron said, giving Black a shifty glance.

"No, he's not." Lupin quietly said.

"He's a wizard," Black started, "An animagus by the name of Peter Pettigrew."

Several moments of silence went by, before I said something. "You mean to say, that Scabbers, the Weasley family rat, is a man that escaped being killed by you twelve years ago and has something to with all of this."

"Yes, exactly Veronica, I'm glad you see my point." Lupin said, I interrupted him.

"I was being sarcastic you swine!" Lupin and Black both looked rather startled.

"Well, you were right." He said uncertainly.

"Peter Pettigrew is dead, you killed him!" Harry said.

Black got up and made a lunge for Scabbers, "I meant to!" He yelled, but Lupin grabbed him and easily held him back.

"We have to explain Sirius, they don't know what's happening."

"We don't have time!"

"You'll just have to wait, just a bit longer."

"I've waited long enough!"

"They deserve to know Sirius, don't you think she deserves it?" Lupin was talking so quietly into Blacks ear that even with me standing right beside them, I almost couldn't hear it.

Black stopped struggling, "Fine." He said, and sat back on the bed. Ron, who was still holding Scabbers, shuffled away.

"I'm going to explain," Lupin said, "But, you have to promise to not interrupt, I want you all to listen, because I don't want to have to repeat myself, got it?" His voice held a threat, so the four of us exchanged a look, but nodded, we weren't going to mess with him.

"Okay, so, this all started when I became a werewolf. Dumbledore helped secure that I got into the school, and made the shrieking shack, and planted the whomping willow over the entrance, so that I could have a place to go each month I transformed."

Harry looked like he was going to say something, but luckily Hermione elbowed him before he could. Lupin continued.

"I befriended James, Sirius and Peter while at Hogwarts, and in their third year, they found out about me being a werewolf, and devoted two years of their lives to becoming illegal animagi. My transformations were," he hesitated, his face pained, "very bad back then, and my friends helped me through it, because I wouldn't attack them when they were in animal form."

This was probably the most interesting thing I'd ever heard before, and I listened with rapt attention, we all were actually, except for Black, he was picking dirt out of his fingernails.

"We betrayed Dumbledore's trust in some way, by rampaging around the grounds at night instead of staying in the shack as a safehouse. There were many near misses, but, we didn't care, just laughed them off, and one of them even involved Professor Snape."

"Professor?" Sirius snarled, his face alight, "He teaches here too?"

Lupin nodded, and continued, "Sirius played a horrible prank on Snape, and he almost died."

"Wait," Harry said, but Lupin made no move to stop him, "Snape hates you so much because you almost killed him?"

"That's right." Said person sneered, as he emerged from behind Lupin, pulling a cloak off himself. I swear to god I almost passed out from shock.

"Two more then for azkaban tonight!" He said, a triumphant look on his pale, pallid face. Snape scared the shit out of me usually, and right now he was so not making it any better for himself.

"Severus listen-" Lupin pleaded.

BANG, thin, snake like cords burst from Snape's wand, entangling Lupin's mouth, arms and legs. He fell to the dust covered floor. I wasn't sure why, but I believed what he was saying, and I knew that when he would have gotten to the part where Peter Pettigrew and Harry's parents were thrown into the story, I would have believed him then too.

I ignored Snape, and dropped down on the ground beside Lupin, trying to untie him. I wasn't even paying attention to what was going on around me, but we needed Lupin, Snape was beyond reason, and I was sure he would do something terrible.

I heard bits and pieces of what was going on around me, both Lupin and I froze when the end of the cords that bound him flew to Snape's hands, "Well come on then, all of you, maybe the dementors will even have a kiss for the werewolf. I'll drag him up to the castle, so that everybody can see you in your shame. A _tame_ werewolf, who would have thought." He sneered, and an expression of fury erupted on Lupin's face, as he grunted and struggled more than ever.

"Calm down, I'm trying to free you." I whispered, leaning down, so that Snape wouldn't notice. Lupin wouldn't look me in the eye, and seemed ashamed, it just made me hate Snape even more that he could demote a man to this.

I was just getting the last knot when another loud bang went off. I looked up to see Snape unconscious. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all having used a spell to blow him backwards. In this moment, I remembered that I had my wand too. I stood up and pointed it at Lupin, Black looked worried for a moment.

"Diffindo" I said clearly, and the ropes all fell away, I held out my hand and pulled him up.

"Thank you." He said a bit breathlessly to me, but I could tell he was grateful for what I had done, I just nodded.

"Oh my god we attacked a teacher!" Hermione exclaimed, looking rather frightened.

"That's not the real issue here Hermione, let them explain." I said, pointing to Lupin and Black.

"Just give me the rat, I can give you some proof." Sirius said.

"Well, how do you even know that it's this rat?" Ron asked, holding Scabbers closer.

Lupin furrowed his eyebrows, rubbing his arms where the ropes were, "That's a fair point."

"Because of this," Black said, and pulled out from his grimy clothes, an equally grimy newspaper, with circles around two pictures. One was the photo of Rons family in egypt, celebrating their lottery win, and the other sent shivers down my spine.

It was me, the headline read that I was the model student of the year, and it had a picture of my smiling face.

 **A/N: This was getting too long, but the next should be up shortly.**


	12. I'm What Now?

**A/N: Just a quick poll here, please review or pm with your answer. I want this to be a trilogy, but I can't decide what years to fit into them, if you could pick between these three options, and either review, or pm, or whatever, that would be great. I might not choose what the majority votes for, but it would certainly help me.**

 **Option A: Book one: 5th &6th year, Book two: 7th year&war, Book three: Undecided**

 **Option B: Book one: 5th year, Book two: 6th year, Book three: 7th year**

 **Option C: Book one: 5th year, Book two: 7th year, Book three: war**

 **Thank you to the people that have already reviewed with their opinions, you have been a great help.**

 **Chapter 12: I'm What Now?**

I remembered when they took that picture, I was smiling, and waved once, before the sequence repeated itself. They told me it would be in the newspaper, but I guess I had forgotten.

"That's where you got it from!" I exclaimed, Harry looked confused.

"Vern, what's going on?" He said, wondering why my picture was circled too, he must have thought Black was going after only him.

"He showed that picture to the fat lady, before he slashed her the fuck up!" Both Black and Lupin's eyebrows shot up as I swore. "He was looking for me too Harry, and even broke into my dorm as well on the night when he broke into the tower."

Harry looked surprised, "Why?"

"I don't know."

"I was never actually looking for you Harry." Black said, "I was always more focused on Peter, you were just there, and since you're my godson I couldn't resist."

"But why were you looking for me?" I asked desperately.

"We'll get to that actually," Lupin interrupted, and started telling the story again.

"Scabbers has been looking off since Sirius got out of prison I presume?" Lupin asked Ron, who at first looked like he was going to say no, but then thought about it, and just nodded his head.

"Exactly, he also has a toe missing, which works out because all they could find of Peter was his finger."

Now it was Black's turn to start telling the story, "I confronted him after I heard of your parents Harry, he put his wand behind his back, and yelled out that it was my fault, before cutting off his finger, transforming, and blowing up everything within twenty feet. He went down into the sewer system, and I suppose somehow ended up with your friend."

"He only did that because you were going to kill him like my parents!" Harry yelled, but I shushed him, things were adding up, and sharing a look with Hermione, we both seemed to agree that all wasn't what it seemed.

"Harry I was the secret keeper for your parents for three years, I helped them hide through the use of a complex charm, that one could only break with help from me. I was hesitant at first to become this, because my girlfriend had just had a baby, and we weren't sure if we wanted to flee the country or not. But I stayed for three more years, until she died."

Black's face got very sad as he talked about his dead girlfriend, but he pressed on, "I didn't want to leave the baby an orphan if anything happened to me, so without telling anybody first, I asked Peter to switch with me. It sounds cruel, but he had less to lose. He agreed, and that night, before we could tell anybody that we'd switched, he did it."

"Betrayed my parents?" Harry asked, and Black nodded.

"Wait," Hermione said, stepping forwards, "What happened to your kid?" She directed the question at Black.

"She technically had no parents, so she got sent to an orphanage, and her name was changed. After it happened, nobody would have wanted to keep my last name."

I felt weird, I had been left at an orphanage when I was three, I was magical, and the more that I looked at Black, the more I realized we had the same features. The black hair and grey eyes, the strong jaw, nose, and cheekbones. My heart rate and breathing sped up.

"What was her name?" I looked at him, and when our eyes connected, I knew.

"Her name was Veronica."

I stumbled backwards, sort of falling on to the bed, "I'm sorry-" Black tried to say, but I held my hand up, breathing hard, I felt like I was going to puke.

I could feel Harry's eyes on me, I knew he was concerned, "You better show us some proof that all of this is true!" He said.

Lupin took the rat from Ron, who looked scared, "If he really is a rat, this won't hurt him." He said, though his voice was far from kind. Black had Snape's wand, they counted to three, and with a flash of blue light, something strange started to happen.

Scabbers grew, and grew, and grew. He grew until he was no longer Scabbers, but a short, pudgy, and rather ugly man. The four of us gasped and jumped back, I was still trying to calm down. This meant that everything Sirius Black was saying was true. I was his daughter, he was my father, and he wasn't responsible for the murder of twelve people. I felt like passing out again.

He actually looked more like a rat than a man, wispy hair, long pointy nails, and teeth that stuck out at the front. He had small watery eyes, a pointed nose, and grubby skin and clothes.

"Sirius, Remus, my friends." His eyes darted around, and even his voice was squeaky, I felt a hatred rising for this man.

"Well, hello Peter, long time no see." Lupin's voice and face seemed rather pleasant, as if this happened all the time, but under the surface, it was sinister, and I knew that Lupin wasn't playing any games.

Black looked like he wanted to kill Peter right then and there, but Lupin gave him a look.

"So, Peter," Lupin continued, in the same voice, though now you could hear the anger more clearly, "We were having a little chat, and needed you to clear some things up for us."

Peter pointed at Lupin, with his middle finger though, for his index wasn't there. "You're going to kill me!" He said, then pointing at Black, but he just laughed, his skull like eyes emptier than ever.

"Everybody here knows that you really did it Peter," He crowed, "you revealing yourself solidified it!"

"Why would an innocent man spent twelve years as a rat, hmm?" Lupin asked, I was coming to realize that Remus Lupin could be really scary if he wanted to be.

"Innocent, but scared." Peter nodded, trying more to convince himself than any of us.

"But why? He's been in Harry's dormitory for years and hasn't hurt him at all?" Hermione asked, cocking her head to one side.

"Exactly!" Peter shouted gleefully, "See? I would never really hurt anybody!"

Black looked at Hermione, "I'll tell you why, because he never did anything unless something was in it for him. Revealing himself would have made Voldemort's followers mad, and we couldn't have that, could we Peter?"

Peter flinched, but Hermione spoke up again, "Um, if you don't mind me asking, Mr. Black, or Sirius." Black jumped at being addressed like this, "How did you get out of azkaban without using some form of dark magic?"

"Exactly-" Peter started, but Lupin silenced him with a single look.

Black pondered the answer, "I'm not sure, I got very thin, and dementors can't sense a dog as well as a person. So I transformed, I think, slipped through the bars, and swam over the english channel to dry land."

"Remus!" Peter said, "You can't believe this! Wouldn't Sirius have told you if he changed the plan?"

Lupin looked very bitter, "Yeah he probably would have, except for the fact that that night, before Sirius could tell anybody, you gave up Lily and James' location. Then they got murdered!" Lupin yelled, a fury in his eyes.

"Well Remus," Black said, his eyes empty, "Shall we kill him now?"

I balked, and moved to stand between Peter and them, "Are you two crazy?" they looked at me, "You're really going to kill him? Yeah okay, and what afterwards? You think everybody's gonna believe your story? You had to threaten us just to get us to _listen_ , and without proof of him," I said, pointing to Peter, "who is going to believe a werewolf, and an escaped convict on their seemingly ridiculous story?!"

"I'm not a convict." Black said, I looked at him, not able to meet his eye, I couldn't get over that he was my father. That I had a parent, and even though I knew he wasn't a murderer now, he still scared me. Prison tattoos covered his skin, and his face was just so haunting.

He seemed to realize that I was scared of him, and looked away, he seemed sad, sad that I couldn't look him in the eye. "I know that you're innocent, we all do. But the whole wizarding community out there? They don't, and I don't want you two to become _real_ murderers."

Harry nodded, and stood beside me, "My dad probably wouldn't have wanted his two best mates to become murderers either."

Lupin nodded, "Move aside then." He raised his wand, I raised my chin, looking at him with suspicion in my gaze. Lupin held his hands up, "I'm just going to tie him up Veronica, I swear."

I nodded and moved, the same thin cords that bound Lupin earlier, now encased Peter.

"But if you transform," Black started, his voice deadly, "we will kill you, agree, Harry? Veronica?"

We looked at each other and nodded, in full view of Peter.

Lupin sprang into action, he put a splint on Ron's leg and got him standing up again, when Hermione mentioned Snape, he managed to get him floating too, though not awake, of course.

Ron, who took Scabbers being Peter as an insult, volunteered to be one of the people who he was chained to, Lupin was the other, it was just to make sure he wouldn't escape again.

Crookshanks led the way through the tunnel, back to the grounds. Black and I walked together behind Lupin and Ron, and Harry and Hermione brought up the rear. Black had Snape's own wand trained on him, keeping him afloat as we climbed the stairs.

"Uh, Veronica," Black said abruptly, "Do you know what this means? Turning Pettigrew in?"

"That you're free?" I asked, not really wanting to talk to him as we edged our way through the tunnel.

"Yes, but, I'm your father." He said, a bit awkwardly.

"Yeah, I know, currently still trying to wrap my head around it myself."

Black nodded, "Well, what I'm trying to say, is that, well, once I'm free, you can move in with me."

"Move in-? Like, out of the orphanage?" I asked, stunned, "Where would you even live?"

Black's face darkened, "I have a place in mind, it probably won't be ready for this summer though, maybe Christmas? I'll have to do some repairs."

"I suppose I could do that, yeah." He smiled, a man ten years younger seemed to burst from his face, he didn't look as scary anymore.

"You can come too Harry, I'm not sure if anybody told you this, but I'm your godfather, and I'm your legal guardian, it says so in your parents will."

I knew Harry's life with his Aunt and Uncle was pretty horrible, he usually came to the Weasley's with me, his face brightened considerably, "Yeah, that would be great!"

We emerged from the whomping willow, which was frozen again, and set off towards the castle across the grounds, it was quite dark now, and as we emerged from behind the tree, we were all bathed in moonlight, up ahead, I saw Lupin freeze, and we all sort of ran into each other until we realized what was happening.

Sirius, which I now felt I could call him, threw out his arms, preventing Harry, Hermione and me from going forward.

"Oh my god," Hermione whispered, "He probably hasn't taken his potion tonight!" I knew she was talking about the wolfsbane potion, and if that was true, than we were all in much more danger than we realized.

"Run," Sirius whispered, "run, all of you, now!" Hermione and I backed up, jogging backwards, it took Sirius blocking Harry from him to get pushed back too, instantly, Snuff was back, and lunged towards Lupin, who wasn't exactly Lupin anymore, but a massive ass wolf.

The werewolf wrenched free of the manacle, freeing himself from Ron and Peter, who moved away quickly. Peter made a lunge for Lupin's wand though, and within moments, Ron was unconscious, Sirius and Lupin were having a dog fight, and Peter was gone.

Lupin fled into the forest, and Sirius, who was bleeding heavily went to search for Peter when Harry told him what had happened, we rushed to Ron, who was still unconscious.

"Come on, we have to get them up to the castle somehow." I said, eyeing the still floating Snape.

That didn't happen though, for the second I heard what sounded like a dog barking in pain, I was gone, if Sirius was in trouble, I wasn't letting him get killed, I wanted to at least get to know him. I could hear Harry and Hermione behind me, and I followed the sound all the way down to the lake, where I noticed Sirius, he wasn't in dog form, and was instead, crouched down. I figured out why when I looked up.

At least a hundred dementors were swarming the lake, I had thought one was bad, but as they all swarmed, I staggered up to Sirius, feeling more awful than ever. I collapsed beside him, too cold to support my own weight anymore, he reached out to my face, his eyes startlingly clear for one moment as he looked at me, then they closed, and his hand dropped.

I couldn't keep my eyes open either, I felt like I just wanted to close them, to make the pain go away, so I did, falling to the ground beside my father, I just closed my eyes, and let the world slip away.

 **A/N: So the big reveal is out, I'm sure almost everybody already suspected it, I wasn't exactly hiding it, and I hope you all liked these two chapters of the big moment.**


	13. The Plot To Save

**A/N: Just a quick poll here, please review or pm with your answer. I want this to be a trilogy, but I can't decide what years to fit into them, if you could pick between these three options, and either review, or pm, or whatever, that would be great. I might not choose what the majority votes for, but it would certainly help me.**

 **Option A: Book one: 5th &6th year, Book two: 7th year&war, Book three: Undecided**

 **Option B: Book one: 5th year, Book two: 6th year, Book three: 7th year**

 **Option C: Book one: 5th year, Book two: 7th year, Book three: war**

 **Thank you to the people that have already reviewed with their opinions, you have been a great help.**

 **Chapter 13: The Plot To Save**

"Please, let's wake Ms. Smith up first, I'm certain she would like to be included, and unlike Mr. Weasley, she has no debilitating injuries, even her broken rib was already healed up." This was the first thing I heard as my groggy brain stumbled to life.

I couldn't remember what had happened after I passed out, which probably meant that this was the first time I had woken up since then. I recognized Professor Dumbledore as the person who had spoke.

"What's happening?" I asked as I opened my eyes and sat up in the hospital bed, my vision slightly foggy, and my chest a bit stiff, turned out I actually had broken a rib, Dumbledore had just said it.

Hermione helped me stand up, and went to work explaining, "Well, Professor Snape has lied, and is telling everybody that both Sirius and Professor Lupin are guilty, and that the rest of us were just confunded by him, nobody believes us, and Sirius is going to get the dementor's kiss!" That woke me up, I turned to Hermione, feeling a hard look come over my face.

"What? Sirius is going to lose his soul! Why does Snape have to be such a shit!" If anybody was surprised at what I said, they didn't show it. But my hatred for Snape had increased tenfold after what he had said to Lupin, all because one out of twenty eight days he went a bit off.

"While that may be true," Oh my god did Dumbledore just call Snape a shit? Or was he referring to what Hermione said? "there are certain things you can do to, hmm, reverse certain actions, and to buy yourselves, a little more time. For I highly doubt the minister is going to believe four teenagers over Professor Snape. " His eyes slid over to rest on Hermione's face.

"Oh! Of course Professor." She exclaimed, I was rather lost, having just woken up, my senses were still a bit groggy.

"I will lock you in, be back here at quarter to midnight, Sirius is locked in Professor Flitwick's office, and don't forget, you can not be seen."

Harry held up a hand, "But, Professor, you believe us right? You believe us about Sirius, and Peter Pettigrew?" I felt my blood boil at the mention of his name, and felt more pissed off now than I did before that he had escaped.

Dumbledore gave a reassuring smile, nodded once, and was gone, the second the door clicked close behind him, Hermione flew into action.

She pulled out a gold chain, with an hourglass on the end, "Oh my god Hermione, is that what I think it is?" How did Hermione get her hands on a time turner? We had learned about them just this year in charms, and what made them work.

"Yeah." Was all she said as she looped the long, expanding chain around mine, Harry's, and her own neck, and twisted three times.

"Hermione what is this?" Harry asked, but soon, a bizarre spinning feeling came over us, our feet touched back down in the entrance hall, and we hurried over to a storage closet, Hermione dragging Harry, he looked quite confused. I was only mildly confused, having already known how a time turner worked, I was just getting over the fact that I had actually _gone back in time._

"Okay, so me, you, and Ron should have just passed, we'll follow, and go save Buckbeak, without being seen, we'll wait, and a few minutes before were supposed to be back in the hospital, we will fly Buckbeak up to Flitwick's office, which should be easy to break into, and rescue Sirius." I nodded, it was a good plan.

"I'll make sure Flitwick's office is perfectly escapable from the outside, that should take me a while to figure out." I said, Hermione nodded as well.

"Great, meet you in the transfiguration courtyard at half past eleven, we'll see Sirius off, and make it back to the infirmary in time."

"Awesome, let's go." Hermione and I both stood up ready to leave, so when Harry interrupted, I'd almost forgotten he was there.

"Wait, what is happening?" He asked.

I sighed, "Look I'm leaving now, past me is already out on the grounds alone, so I'll be fine. I won't let anyone see me." I left Hermione to explain what a time turner was to Harry, I didn't have time for that. Instead, I made my way up to the seventh floor, where I knew Flitwick's office to be.

"Hey! Vern!"

"Motherfuckingshit!"

"What was that?" Fred asked as he came up beside me, "Oh my god! What happened to your face?!" he said, and I suddenly remembered that I probably still had a bruised jaw from where Sirius hit me, after I kicked him. It didn't hurt anymore though, which was a good thing. "I thought you were going out on the grounds? Did you get in a fight?"

"No, I fell over, but now that you're here, you can help me with another something extremely urgent." At least Fred couldn't see that my whole chest and torso area was wrapped in bandages under my shirt, falling over would not have covered that.

Fred groaned, "I already _did_ do something for you!"

"Yeah, well, this is actually more important somehow. I need you to help me enchant the window on Flitwick's office to be immune to locking spells." A few moments of silence ticked by, I looked at Fred expectantly. I had no idea what charms I would need to enchant Flitwick's window, and as this decided the fate of my newly found out father, who I actually wanted to get to know, it was important. It wasn't really Sirius' fault that he wasn't there for me, and I wanted him to know that I felt that way, and if we couldn't save him, he would never know.

"What the fuck?"

"Just do it, please!"

Fred looked at me, unimpressed, "You'll owe me double."

"I'll do whatever you want. Twice."

"That's basically what you said the first time." He said, rolling his eyes.

"Yes but it's double."

He sighed deeply, " _Whatever_ I want?"

I was beginning to regret this, but I only had so much time, "Yes, whatever you want, two times. Now let's go!"

"Alright." He walked after me before stopping, "Wait, Flitwick is probably _in_ his office, so won't we have to approach it from the outside?"

I paused, "We're on the seventh floor though."

 **111111111**

"I am in so much trouble." I seethed as I snuck around outside, with Fred, praying that nobody saw us, or that we didn't see anybody. The quidditch pitch, which was where we were going to get Fred and George's brooms, was in the opposite direction from Hagrid's hut and the whomping willow. I was still nervous though.

"What is wrong with you Vern?"

"Nothing let's just keep moving!"

"No, no, something is weird here." He stopped walking, I grabbed his hand to keep pulling him along, ignoring the shivers that came with it.

"Yeah, something is weird, but it will be over soon, and we only have two hours to finish this." Fred shook his head, but let himself get pulled along by me. I was shocked at how easily he was complying with the ridiculous requests I kept asking him. It really said something, I didn't know what though.

We got their brooms, and keeping out of sight, flew up the the seventh floor, we were hovering a few feet below the edge to Flitwick's window. "Okay, any ideas?"

"Well," Fred started, looking thoughtful, "we wouldn't have to make it unable to be hit with just one locking spell, but unable to be hit by _any_ locking spell." I nodded.

"And it would have to be undetectable, so nobody knew that their spells were being refused. It would also have to be pretty strong, and last for over six hours." Fred was looking at me very strangely as we hovered in the air, the twilight wind making our hair whip around our faces. "What?"

"Oh, nothing, I just can't seem to figure out what the hell this would be for, among other things." I shook my head.

"Nevermind that, we need to come up with a series of spells that will do all of this, and now we only have one and a half hours left."

"Okay, so alohomora, that unlocks things, and could keep something lock resistant." Fred started, "So it would have to be a very strong, undetectable alohomora for people to not break the charm and lock the window."

" _Alohomora_!" I said strongly, the charm floating out of my wand, and encasing the window.

"Damn, that's a pretty strong charm." Fred looked at it in something close to wonder.

"Yeah, so next would be _Ignortur._ That's the part of the undetectable extension charm which means, 'undetectable' so it should work, I think."

Fred did the charm this time, and it was just as strong as mine, if not stronger. So when they encased the window together, I was almost certain that it would hold up. "Excellent, I, uh, don't need you anymore." I wasn't sure if I should just tell him to go away, he couldn't come to the transfiguration courtyard with me, because then he would hang around too long and would see things he wasn't supposed to see.

Fred gave me a look as we floated softly down to the ground, "What, I help you twice, and you ditch me?"

"Well, you can hang out with me for the next forty five minutes, or you can just wait until the party, I know it starts soon, but I'll be there, albeit a bit late."

He grinned, "It's just easier to wait until the party," he took Georges broom from me, "I'll put these away, you do whatever you have to do." He gave me a wink and walked away, I just watched him, until he was out of my sight.

I hung out in the courtyard for the next forty five minutes, watching the people come and go, it was becoming very late at night, and I know that Harry and Hermione would be coming any minute. Just like clockwork, I heard the swish of wings, and with a soft clatter, Buckbeak landed, and Hermione clambered off looking queasy.

"I can not stand another minute on him!" She protested, sitting down and putting her head between her knees.

"I suppose you did it then." I said, walking up to Buckbeak and bowing, then waiting until he bowed back. I learned that from my extensive hippogriff research.

"Yup, and do you want to show me where Flitwick's window is Vern? Hermione doesn't really want to fly again." I grinned and nodded, getting on Buckbeak's back with a bit of help.

I had to hold on to Harry very tight as we soared up into the sky, under other circumstances, this would be very fun. "Over there!" I shouted, pointing to the window where I could see Sirius' face. Harry maneuvered Buckbeak as close as we could get him, and I waved at Sirius to stand back while Harry opened the window.

"Nothing will zap me if I try to touch this, right?!" Harry yelled.

"It shouldn't!" He gave me a look, "Just open it!" I prayed for mine and Fred's spells to have worked, so when Harry reached over and unlatched the window no problem, I felt like screaming with joy.

"What-? How-?" Sirius choked, as I held out my hand for him to grab onto, he did, and when he jumped, I pulled, and with very limited scrabbling, we were all on. Me holding onto Harry, and Sirius holding onto me.

We swooped towards the ground, so me and Harry could get off, and Sirius could escape. Harry got off first when we landed, and then I was about too, but Sirius placed a tattooed hand on my shoulder.

"Wait, Veronica," I stopped mid dismount, and looked at Sirius, "I just want to thank you for what you did for me before you knew who I was, and I'm glad I got to see you, you've grown up so well." I smiled, even though the words sounded rehearsed, it was nice. It made me think that Sirius had practiced for years what he was going to say to the daughter he never got to see grow up.

I wanted to say so much, to ask him so many questions, about my mom, myself, and what things were like when I was born. I felt like spewing it all out at once, and I wanted more time, if just a second, an hour, or a day, to get to know the man who was my father. But I didn't have these things. "It feels nice knowing. I'll see you Sirius." That was the last thing I said to him before I jumped off of Buckbeak, and Sirius Black sailed into the night.

We arrived back into the infirmary with minutes to spare, and when we heard Snape's furious yell, echoing down all the way from the seventh floor, I smiled a little bit, because I knew I had succeeded.

 **111111111**

I argued with Madam Pomfrey until she let me out of the hospital in annoyance, I wasn't _that_ injured. Skirting around wherever I expected Snape to be, because I really didn't want to see him, I made my way up to the common room, where when the second I entered, I was confronted with noise, and a yell of, "Vern you made it!"

Fred almost ran into me he approached so fast, "Yeah Fred, I told you I would be here." I laughed, letting him pull me over to where all of our friends were sitting. For the first time in what felt like forever, I was able to just have fun. Talking and laughing and joking with my friends, not having to worry about Sirius Black, or Buckbeak the hippogriff, it was probably the most carefree moment I'd had all term. Even the thought of Peter Pettigrew escaping couldn't bring me down.

When I went to bed that night, I couldn't stop thinking about how I had a father, and a mother who both actually loved me very much. It saddened me to think that my mother was dead, and that I would never meet her, I didn't even know her name.

But meeting Sirius, finding out that he was innocent, and even though we couldn't clear his name, he was alive, and free, and it meant so much that I finally had somebody to call a father, even if I didn't know much about him yet.

But those things, they take time.


	14. Start of Something New

**A/N: I have made up my mind and decided to choose option A for the playout of these books. I think it will work best for the storyline that I want to pursue, and I thank everybody who gave their opinion. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just go read the author's note at the beginning of any of my previous chapters.**

 **Chapter 14: Start of Something New**

The next day, everyone actually woke up rather early, it was fine with me though, for technically, while I was awake for way more hours than anybody else yesterday, if you include my time travel incident, I had a good night's sleep, and didn't feel that tired at all.

The last Hogsmeade visit of the year was happening today, so around noon, all five of my friends walked down to Hogsmeade, I didn't though, I wasn't a fan of the heat, and after hearing from word around the common room that Professor Lupin was leaving later this afternoon, I wanted to say goodbye.

I didn't actually know where his office was, I had never been to the defence against the dark arts office before. So I sort of wandered the halls around the defence classroom, I was just walking through the same hallway a third time when a voice spoke my name.

"Veronica?" I stopped, and backed up a few steps, to see Professor Lupin sitting at his desk in an office to my right, I didn't realize how I had missed it. "What are you doing? You've walked past here three times already."

I blushed slightly, walking up to the doorway, "I was actually looking for your office Professor, I suppose I just, uh, missed it the first time."

"The first three times you mean." Lupin corrected, but he had a smile on his face, and waved me into the room, onto a chair that was in front of his desk. The office was half packed up, with only a few things remaining out of boxes. "What did you need Veronica?"

Lupin was one of the only teachers who called students by their first names, it made him much more personable, and easier to talk to. "Well, I heard that you were leaving…" I trailed off, why was I here? I couldn't think of anything to say, and I had never even talked with Lupin more than a few times in the year.

"Does this have to do with, last night, perhaps?" He guessed, and when he said it, I knew he was right. I wasn't able to tell any of my friends what had happened. As far as they knew, Sirius Black was just another mass murderer on the loose. Not the completely innocent man who also happened to be my father.

"I'm irritated, irritated that I can't tell anybody that I'm not just a hopeless orphan anymore." Lupin nodded, I found it very easy to just spill my problems to him, he had that look about him.

"I don't think you were ever a hopeless orphan, and while yes, you can't tell anybody now, one day, when Sirius is proved to be innocent, nobody will care who your father is." Lupin leaned back in his chair, the beams of sunlight fell through the high windows around the office. When they fell on him, it seemed to highlight all the old, and new scars and scratches on his face and arms, which I could see because his sleeves were rolled up.

"Are all those cuts on your arms from the transformation? Or were a few from Professor Snape?" It might have been an insensitive question, but the door to the office was closed, and Lupin didn't look anything but mild as he looked up to answer it.

"Some, yes, are from my transformation, but most would be from Professor Snape." He didn't look at all angry as he said this, how did he not hold any grudges?

"But, Professor!" I took a deep breath, calming myself before speaking again, "Professor, does it not bother you what Snape did?"

"Oh, of course it bothers me Veronica, it bothers me very much, it also bothers me that Professor Snape is the reason I'm resigning from my job. But it wouldn't be very wise to, shall we say, take actions on this feeling. Do you understand?"

I didn't understand, I didn't understand at all actually, it just made me more frustrated that Lupin wasn't going to do anything back to the man that threatened to publicly shame him for what he was. "I guess I have too don't I? I can't very well say anything about it to Snape either, not while I'm still his student for two more years." I grumbled, Lupin nodded, a look of familiarity in his eyes.

"You're a lot like Sirius." It came as a shock that he would say this, but, then I remembered that they had been friends when they were in Hogwarts too. Suddenly I found myself clamoring for answers, to questions I didn't have time to ask Sirius himself.

"What was he like? Did you know me as child? Were you guys best friends? Or just friend friends? Who was my mother? Did they really love me?" Lupin smiled at all my questions except for the last one, his face just got sort of sad.

"Of course they loved you, and I know that Sirius would do anything to go back in time and have the chance to raise you like it should have happened." I nodded, not wanting to say anything, to afraid I would choke up or something. "And, I'm afraid that I don't exactly have time to answer all of your questions, I see in front of me a certain Harry Potter coming this way."

I leaned forward to look at the Marauder's map that Lupin had out in front of him. It didn't really shock me that Lupin was Moony, it did at first, but I got over it pretty quick, there were bigger things to pay attention to than that. I did however notice that Harry was coming this way, probably to say a farewell to Lupin too.

"Alright, well, I'll see you sometime Professor." I said, standing up and waving. Technically, he wasn't a professor anymore, but he made no move to correct me, and instead just said a simple, 'Goodbye Veronica.' in return.

I did walk down to Hogsmeade after that, I didn't really have anything better to do. It wasn't a day to stay cooped up inside The Three Broomsticks, which is why I passed that immediately, and instead went up the hill to the shrieking shack. Sure enough, all five of my friends were lounging around on the grass under a tree.

It made me laugh just a little bit that none of them had any idea what had gone on here just last night.

 **111111111**

"No, no, no, the best part of this year was definitely the party after we won the quidditch cup."

"Mate, Sirius Black literally broke into the tower not two hours after it ended."

"Yeah, but you can't deny it, that party was the shit."

George shrugged and nodded, coming into agreement with Lee.

"You're all wrong," Angelina said, leaning forward, "the highlight of this year, was _winning_ the quidditch cup. After parties are for losers."

Fred, George, and Lee all scoffed at the same time.

"No, the best part was finishing OWLs." Alicia said, I nodded.

"Amen."

"Get your priorities straight." Angelina rolled her eyes, and pulled one of her many magazines out of her bookbag, and opened it up.

The train rumbled on it's way back to Kings Cross, back to the normal world. I would be staying with the Weasley's over the summer again, the orphanage never really expected me back, which meant that it really wasn't the normal world, the Weasleys physically couldn't be normal.

Even though I lived at the orphanage, and Mrs. Cathrage was my legal guardian, she understood that I lived with my 'boarding school' friends for the summer. Last year when the Weasleys went to Egypt was weird though. I hadn't lived in the orphanage for four years, and then suddenly had to go back for the summer.

I contemplated the school year I'd just had. I found out that I actually had a father, which I still somehow hadn't had a panic attack about. I feared that I was going to lose my life when confronted with a mass murderer who wasn't a murderer, and then the real mass murderer escaped.

All of this, you would think, would make someone extremely stressed out. I wasn't though, instead I was excited, excited to meet Sirius again. I didn't know how to get in contact with him, and wasn't sure when the next time I'd seen him would be. He said I could live with him, but obviously since Sirius was on the run, I couldn't live with him. I hoped that one day, like Lupin said, Sirius would be free and I could actually know my father.

I hugged Alicia and Angelina goodbye when we reached the station, and as soon as I stepped off the train and walked through the barrier with Fred and George, I got practically assaulted my Mrs Weasley.

"Oh, Veronica dear! I'm so glad to see you well after that whole Sirius Black incident! I'm so excited for this summer!" She practically suffocated me in a giant hug, so much so that I couldn't even give her a response back. She gave the same treatment to Ron, Percy, Fred, and George before we all went to the Floo points in kings cross.

As I spiralled home for the summer, I knew one thing, that my life was never going to be ordinary again.

 **A/N: A bit of a cheesy ending, but this is the end of the third book! This fanfic is going to have the fourth book in it as well but I think completing one of the real life books is a bit of an achievement. I'd like to thank everybody that has reviewed, followed, and favourited this story so far, I hope you all like the second half just as much!**


	15. Extended Family

**Chapter 15: Extended Family**

"Hey, Ginny, can you throw me that hairbrush?" Without even looking, Ginny pitched the hairbrush over her right shoulder, and with perfect aim, it practically landed while brushing my hair.

"Did anybody tell you that Bill and Charlie are coming home this summer?" Ginny said, finally turning around, finishing the plait she was putting in her own hair.

"Uh, no? Why am I only hearing about this now?" I joked, getting up from the cot on the other side of Ginny's room. Ever since my first time staying here, I just stayed in Ginny's room. We were pretty alike, and got along great, even when I first met her and she was only eight.

"I don't know, just thought I'd mention it because they're coming home today." I nodded, wracking my brain to even try and remember the last time I'd seen the two oldest Weasley brothers. They both lived in exotic places. I saw Charlie last when I was in second year, and he was in seventh, and I honestly couldn't remember if I'd even ever met Bill, probably not, since he'd worked in Egypt for the past forever.

"Have I even met Bill?" I asked, getting dressed for the day, putting on a tank top and jean shorts.

"Uh," Ginny paused midway through walking out the door, "I actually don't think you have, he's a really cool guy though." she grinned and led the way downstairs for a late breakfast.

The day progressed slowly, it was only the third week of summer, and so far, all we were doing at the Burrow was counting down the days until we went to the Quidditch world cup. All of a sudden though, my peaceful afternoon of hanging out with Fred and George, flying in the field behind their house, was interrupted when Mrs Weasley came bustling out of the back door.

"Fred, George, Veronica! Bill and Charlie are here!"

We landed on the ground and started to walk towards the house. "So Bill works in Egypt at the Gringotts branch there, and Charlie works with dragons in Romania?" I asked them, wanting to get it right.

George nodded, "Yup, Bill is technically a curse breaker, it's his _official job description_." He held up finger quotes and used a haughty accent, both me and Fred snorted.

"At least it's not as bad as Percy, maybe he'll stop telling us about his new job and go tell Charlie instead, he puts up with people's shit way too easy." Fred held open the back door for me as we walked into the burrow.

"Hey guys!" I widened my eyes as two guys that must have been Bill and Charlie came out of the front area of the house. I knew which was Charlie because I'd already met him before, he was just much burlier, tanned, and burned then the last time I'd seen him. The other guy was the total opposite. He was extremely tall, probably over six foot five, it was unbelievable, and he was skinny, which made him look even taller. He had long, red hair, longer than mine actually, that was swept back in a ponytail. He looked like the type of person you would see on a nature documentary. He had leather boots, a fang ear piercing, and just looked totally badass in general. Bill the curse breaker _was_ a pretty cool guy, I could see what Ginny meant.

They finished saying hi to Fred and George before turning to me.

"Hey Vern!" Charlie said brightly, waving, I waved back, but Bill turned and looked.

"Is your name Vern?" I sighed, throwing a look to Fred and George, who had identical smug grins on their faces.

"No, that would be stupid, my name is Veronica, these two dingbats," I motioned to the twins, "just incessantly call me that."

"Yeah, last time I saw you, you hated it." Charlie said, grinning.

"I learned to put up with it."

"Well, it's nice to meet you Vern." Bill smiled widely and shook my hand.

Sighing, I gave a equally wide smile back.

 **111111111**

The days ticked by. More talk of the world cup floated around, and talk of Harry coming to the burrow as well, which lead to Mr and Mrs. Weasley attempting to mail his family a letter, which didn't exactly go well.

"Uh, no, Mr. Weasley, you only need one stamp." I tried to reach out and stop Mr. Weasley as he started putting stamps on to the envelope in places where stamps shouldn't go, which was the whole thing in this case.

"Well, you can never be too careful Vern! All these muggle things…" He trailed off in his methodicalness of putting stamps all over the envelope, "Do you know why they put stamps on letters? Is an address not enough?"

With a small sigh and a bit of a smile, I began to explain.

A few more days went by, and it was official, Harry was coming to the Burrow on the following Sunday, even though he hadn't actually responded to the letter yet, the fight of who was going to go pick him up was the ensuing conversation.

"Well, yes Ron, of course you can come," Mr Weasley said, looking quite overwhelmed, mainly because Fred and George wanted to go as well, they told me it had something to do with Harry's cousin, and that was it for me, I didn't even want to know more. "Oh, I guess you two can come as well. Just be on your best behavior."

Fred and George spoke in unison, "Of course Dad." it made me shudder.

The middle of the summer something strange happened, on August 21st, as I was checking my trunk to ensure I had all my books, as OWL letters and back to school lists were coming any day now. I was rather stressed out about OWLs, as they sort of decided what classes I was going into this year, the nervousness flew away though, as something quite different flew into my room.

It was a giant parrot, red, blue, and green all over. The thing was massive, and flew through the open window and onto my cot with alarming force, looking a bit winded as it did. The second I approached it carefully though, and saw the envelope with my name written on the back, I had a sneaking suspicion of who it was from.

Sirius Black, or, my dad, hadn't contacted me all summer, but as I didn't have an owl, didn't know where he was, and couldn't use Errol to send a message to my believed to be mass murderer father, I hadn't been able to contact him either. The parrot sitting silently on my bed though, just staring at me, well, that had to be a good sign.

It was quite hard keeping a secret from my two best friends about something as monumental as finding one of your parents, but of course I couldn't tell them, nobody knew the truth about him, maybe one day they would, but for now, all that was known was that Ron and I shared a few more silent looks than before.

I took the letter from the parrot, who sat very still on my bed, just watching me, I assumed this is how I would get another letter back to Sirius. Quickly, I checked outside the doorway, looking up and down the hallway, making sure nobody was in the immediate area, despite the house being so full, there wasn't anybody upstairs, so I made my move to read the letter.

 _Veronica,_

 _I'm somewhere safe, where nobody knows my name, me and Buckbeak are good friends by now, though I won't tell you anymore just incase._

My eyebrows scrunched up for a moment before I understood that he was being deliberately vague, nice going Veronica.

 _I hope your summer has been going well, and I'll try to send you something for your birthday, I'm sorry I missed it, weather is patchy where I am. No promises though, I don't know where I'll be by that point, or if this friendly parrot Guava will still be following me around._

I was shocked he remembered that my birthday had passed, it was August 13th, and the Weasleys threw a great party like usual, but I hadn't expected Sirius to remember after being in Azkaban for twelve years. Also, I couldn't believe that Sirius had made friends with a parrot named Guava.

"Your name is Guava?" I turned and asked it.

"Guava!" Was the only thing I got squawked back at me.

"Okay."

 _Just wanted to let you know that I'm alright, I wasn't sure if you'd be worrying, but I took a chance, Guava knows where I am, so send her back response or not, she's a pretty good friend._

 _I hope to see you soon,_

 _Snuff_

I folded the letter back up and sat down on the side of my bed, Guava walked up to me, muttering her name over and over again under her breath. I wasn't exactly sure if I had been worrying about Sirius, I didn't know him very well, but even then, I didn't want anything bad to happen to him, and definitely wanted to get to know him as a person.

So, I pulled out some parchment from my already open trunk, found a pen I stole from the orphanage last summer, because quills took way too long, and started to write.

 _Snuff,_

 _I'm glad you're alright, and I wouldn't say that I didn't worry at all. Thank you for remembering my birthday, I hadn't even thought it a possibility that you would before I got your letter. Guava seems lovely, but you should expand her vocabulary, hearing her saying her own name over and over again is kind of unsettling._

 _I hope to see you soon as well,_

 _Veronica_

I rolled up the letter after proofreading it, and attached it to Guava,who gave one last squawk of her name before flying back out the window, to wherever Sirius may be.

 **111111111**

I was sleeping in, something I actually didn't like, I was much more of a morning person who enjoyed her sleep in the hours between ten and six o'clock. This particular day of sleeping in was cut short though, as the door to my room burst open rather fast for being only nine in the morning.

"Rise and shine Vern, I hope your decent-"

"Fred!" Ginny exclaimed as she rolled her eyes and turned over in her bed to face the wall.

"I'm here for Veronica Ginny."

"Yeah, so spit it out, I don't have time for your shit right now Fred." Fred and I hadn't exactly been hanging out like we used to this summer, after the crap he pulled by the clock tower, and the fact that I wanted to _not_ think of my best friend in a romantic way, I had not so secretly been avoiding him.

"Don't swear, Ginny's here." As Fred said this, Ginny's hand emerged from her bed, her middle finger stuck straight up in Fred's direction. I burst out laughing, Fred looked astonished.

"Oh. My. God. Come on Vern OWLs are here."

"Jesus fucking Christ! Was that not important to tell me before?!" I leaped out of bed with zero hesitation, the smile gone.

Fred shrugged, "No not really-"

I cut him off pushing past him to get downstairs, "Move!"

I heard him behind me, and it made me falter for a split second, "Okay crazy lady."

 **111111111**

"Oh Veronica! Here's your letter, oh I'm so proud of you!" Mrs Weasley hugged me right then and there.

"I haven't gotten my results back yet Mrs Weasley?" I phrased it like a question, not doubting that maybe she had already opened my results for me and looked at them. The unopened and unblemished envelope with nothing but my name written on the back told me differently though.

I tore it open, not even waiting for Fred or George, who were still just holding theirs.

I skipped past the top, only looking at my marks,

 _Ancient Runes: E_

 _Arithmancy: E_

 _Astronomy: O_

 _Care of Magical Creatures: O_

 _Charms: O_

 _Defence Against the Dark Arts: O_

 _Herbology: O_

 _History of Magic: O_

 _Potions: O_

 _Transfiguration: O_

I think I actually deflated into a chair with relief. All O's except for two of my electives, and even then they were just E's.

Mrs Weasley wasted no time in snatching my letter up for herself and skimming over it in three seconds flat or something.

"Ten OWLs Veronica! Outstanding!" Mrs Weasley scooped me up in another hug, the echoes of the Weasleys congratulations followed me as I went to sit at the farthest part of the table, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Yeah, outstanding, that's what most of your marks are!" George was now reading my letter, him and Fred had opened theirs but hadn't shown anyone yet. I blushed a bit more, waiting for them to show their letters, nothing escaped notice in this house.

"You know," Bill started from my left, I was at the end of the table, Charlie was across from him, and Ginny, who had come downstairs sometime in the ruckus was sitting across from me, drinking some orange juice. "I got twelve OWLs."

I gave him a look, Bill acted fake arrogant all the time, probably just to annoy me.

"I would say congratulations, but the words, 'When did I ask?' come to mind more quickly." Charlie snorted, Ginny smiled, and Bill just shook his head and laughed a bit.

"THREE!" I jumped half a kilometer out of my seat and almost fell off my chair into Bill. Charlie had already taken out his wand and was using it to siphon up Ginny's spilt orange juice.

"THREE OWLS! YOU PRACTICALLY FAILED!"

It dawned on me what was happening as Mrs Weasley's voice rang out around the already crowded kitchen.

"Let's leave." Ginny's quiet words met everybody's ears, and with a general scraping sound, Bill, Charlie, Ron, Ginny, and I got up and filed out the door, leaving Fred, George, and Mr and Mrs Weasley behind in the kitchen.

The five of us stood in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs, a loose circle forming where we were.

"Quidditch pitch in five?" Everybody nodded to Charlie's words, and as I walked upstairs to get changed, I figured that maybe there would be less actual quidditch playing than expected.

 **A/N: There's no excuse for how late this was, I hope you like it anyway.**


	16. Fun and Games

**Chapter 16: Fun and Games**

"Alright, remember boys, no funny business." Mr Weasley warned as him, Fred, George, and Ron all lined up in front of the Weasleys fireplace, in the tiny kitchen, ready to get Harry.

It wasn't illegal what Mr Weasley had done to get Harry's Aunt and Uncles fireplace hooked up to the floo system, Mrs Weasley had made sure of it, it just made the plan a bit dicey, because not every family had a human sized fireplace in their sitting room. I tried to tell Mr Weasley this, but he just assured me it would all be fine so I let it go.

We were going to the quidditch World Cup tomorrow, and Hermione had arrived just yesterday, after the confrontation with Fred, George, and Mrs Weasley. It was funny, in a way. They get chewed out for not doing well on OWLs, then later that afternoon, Mrs Weasley finds some joke shop stuff in their room. Cue everybody but the three of them to go outside again, and Fred and George had had two major rows with their parents in a day.

I was shocked they were still even allowed to go pick up Harry, but whatever.

"How well do you think this will go on a scale of one to ten?" I asked Ginny and Hermione, who were sitting on the staircase, I said this quietly, so Mrs Weasley, who was knitting in the sitting room, wouldn't come whisk the three of us up to do something else for her.

"I think about a negative ten." Ginny said, Hermione laughing a bit.

"I'm just afraid the Dursleys won't be expecting their fireplace to be invaded." Hermione stated, her brow creasing a bit as she did.

"I wouldn't say invaded, but whatever. I'm getting some toast or something, I'm hungry, you guys want anything?"

"It's almost dinnertime, and you're getting toast?"

"Yes Ginny. Do you want anything or not?"

"Yeah, I'll have some toast too please." She smiled brightly at me, and I rolled my eyes before turning and going to make said toast.

I came in right as the fun stuff was happening, Mr Weasley went first, yelling out Harry's address, then Fred and George, both in quick succession, Ron went last, and as I made mine and Ginny's toast, I thought about the World Cup. I never thought I would have an opportunity to go to something like this, and have prime seats. Quidditch was great to watch, and was the only sport I liked. After watching quidditch, muggle sports just weren't interesting anymore, except rugby.

A burst of green light filled the kitchen, me, Bill, and Charlie, who were in the kitchen too, all looked to see who was coming through first. With a spin and a whirl, Fred came out of the fireplace, his face alight with mischief. Instantly I knew.

"You idiot." I said as George and what appeared to be Harry's trunk spun out of the fire next.

Fred looked around the kitchen, probably to make sure his Mum wasn't earshot. "Is was an experiment, and Harry always complains about his cousin way too much, Dad will sort it out."

Bill sighed, "I'm assuming this has something to do with Weasleys Wizard Wheezes?"

Georges eyes immediately went wide, "Don't say it out loud! She probably has some alarm!"

Ron came through next, and immediately sat down at the table with George. Fred however, waited anxiously by the fireplace, probably waiting for Harry to tell him how it went, he ignored Bills previous question.

"I'm out." I didn't want to hang around for when Mrs Weasley found out, because she surely would. Three arguments in four days was just too much. I took my toast and left.

"Whats going on in there?" Hermione asked as I gave Ginny her toast.

"Fred pulled some shit with a joke thing and Harry's cousin."

"No?!" Ginny said, her eyes alight but her voice in disbelief, "I didn't think they were gonna piss Mum off again for a while, but here we go, round three."

Laughing, I sat down on the bottom step, since Ginny and Hermione were on the middle steps of the first part of the staircase. We sat in silence, quiet comfortable, before a bout of laughter rolled out from the kitchen, I rolled my eyes, but less than a minute later, a faint pop of apparition was heard, and the usually calm voice of Mr Weasley was yelling. What he was yelling I couldn't hear.

"Dad shouting? Since when?" Ginny got up off the stairs, her toast gone and interest piqued.

"I don't know what he did but oh boy it must have been bad." The three of us started walking to the kitchen, but before any of us could stop it, Mrs Weasley was bustling past, looking confused, but we all new what was gonna happen next.

"Should we just get Harry and Ron and leave?" Hermione asked, I weighed both options, but nodded in the end.

"I'm sure our room could do with some 'cleaning,'" I held up finger quotes, as we walked into the doorway of the kitchen behind Mrs Weasley.

Things were getting tense in the kitchen, and I smiled just a bit at Harry when our eyes met, Hermione was quick to break the tension though.

"Hey Ron, let's go show Harry where he's sleeping." She said, heavily hinting that all five of us should leave.

"Harry's sleeping in my room, just like last time-?"

I cut Ron off, "Yes well let's just make sure he knows where it is, maybe he forgot." I gave Ron the most non subtle look I could muster, and finally he got it, then the five of us were trekking upstairs, Ginny and Ron explaining the history behind Fred and George's summer endeavors.

Just as we were on the second landing, Ron's room was on the fourth, and ours was just across the hall, though we weren't going there yet, a door swung open out into the stairway, and quite literally smacked me in the face.

"OW!" I clutched my nose as Percy, in all of his glory, peered out from behind the offender.

"Oh, pardon me Veronica, I didn't see you there," He said rather straightforwardly, I didn't get the feeling he really cared all that much though. "I've been working nonstop, but I heard quite the ruckus downstairs, what's that about? If you must know, I was working a rather important cauldron bottom report for the ministry, I have no time for people thundering up and down the stairs."

"We weren't _thundering_." I said thickly, a bit irritated still, looking down at my hand and noticing that my throbbing nose was starting to bleed.

"Yeah, and we'd hate to disturb your top security work." Huffed Ron, a bit annoyed with his older brother as well.

"This is important Ronald, faulty cauldrons from around the globe are increasing in leaks by up to three percent every year-"

"Oh yeah, that'll change the world won't it? Make the front page." Percy went slightly red as Ron mocked him.

"Come on guys let's go, I need something for my nose." I said, the flow was getting faster, and I couldn't stand here in a hallway forever.

"Vern!" Hermione gasped, because even she had eventually converted to calling me by my nickname, "I didn't know you were bleeding!"

"It's fine, I think they're done shouting downstairs, I'll go get it fixed up by Mrs Weasley." I said to her, turning and going back to the kitchen before my nose got any worse, I didn't want to have blood on my clothes.

"I'll come with you," Ginny said behind me, I knew she didn't want to feel like a fourth wheel by Ron, Hermione, and Harry. "can't let you face Mum complaining about your two best friends alone now can I."

I smiled a bit as we went into the doorway, Mrs Weasley looked rather irritated, and was preparing our dinner with a bit too much gusto. Slamming pots and pans around, there were potatoes going around the sink getting peeled very fast, so fast their skins were flying everywhere.

Ginny looked a bit wary, "Mum? Vern's nose is hurt-"

Mrs Weasley whirled around, her face instantly softening as she saw my nose, "Oh Veronica what happened? Come, sit, I'll get you fixed up in no time."

She waved her wand and a book flew off the nearby shelves, it flapped open to a page about healing minor injuries, and as I sat at the table, Mrs Weasley fixed me right up, my nose stopped throbbing instantly.

"Thanks, Mrs Weasley, I got a door opened in my face by accident that's all."

"Oh that's all right dear, now if you don't mind, we're eating in the garden tonight, and Bill and Charlie are just moving the tables, if you could lay some plates down, that would be wonderful." She smiled warmly, her bad mood gone for the moment as Ginny and I took plates and cutlery off the counter to bring them outside.

What we met outside though, was not Bill and Charlie just moving tables. They were making the two tables float in the air. Controlled by the two brothers, the tables looked as if they were having a duel, constantly running into each other in midair, splinters and chunks of wood flying. I guess this is what you did when you were over seventeen and could use magic whenever you wanted. It wouldn't happen to me until next summer.

Fred and George were already out here, cheering and laughing all the same. Apparently Mrs Weasley's wrath hadn't bothered them that much. It did look like quite a bit of fun though, so me and Ginny joined in after putting the dishes and cutlery down on the grass, probably not the most sanitary option, but they were getting heavy.

The fun stopped rather abruptly, as the two tables crashed together with a rather loud noise, a leg fell off of what I thought was Charlie's table, and with a clatter, a window opened from the side of the house. Low and behold, it was Percy, looking just the same as we had seen him earlier, irritated.

"Will you keep it down out there!" He bellowed.

"Sorry Perce," Bill yelled up, sounding more amused than sorry though. "how's that report coming along?"

"Horribly." He snapped, and the window swung shut behind him. Laughing a bit still, Bill and Charlie placed the tables back on the ground, reattached the missing leg, and laid down tablecloths from nowhere.

Within no time it seemed, the sun was setting, the mosquitoes were buzzing, and the tables were laden down with brilliantly cooked food, as was the usual with Mrs Weasley.

I was sitting at the far end of the table, sat beside Fred and Charlie, and across from Ron, Harry and Hermione. Fred kept poking me, then acting like it wasn't him, sometimes I wondered if he was six instead of sixteen.

Somehow, even from this part of the table, I could hear Percy's voice. This sounded mean, but I was really glad he had graduated, something about him just bothered me. Probably his horrible attitude and people skills, that could have something to do with it.

Currently he and Mr Weasley were talking about a missing woman from the ministry, I didn't know why they didn't think it more strange that a woman was missing for a month. In the muggle world they would have search parties and everything, did they not do that here?

I turned from that conversation to the one Ginny, Bill, and Mrs Weasley were having about his hair, Ginny was saying she liked it long, and I had to agree with her.

"Who do you think's gonna win Vern?" Fred's voice interrupted my thoughts. Him, George, and Charlie had been having a conversation around me about the World Cup.

"Huh?" The question came out of nowhere, and I had to suck in to make sure no mashed potatoes went flying out of my mouth.

Fred looked only mildly irritated that I wasn't paying attention to his conversation, "The World Cup."

"Oh, I don't know, it doesn't matter much to me, the real fun is just watching the game." I smiled, but Fred looked affronted.

"The only side you ever take in quidditch is at school, you don't even care about Britain's leagues do you?"

I thought about it for a minute, but shrugged, "Yeah, it doesn't matter to me unless it's at school. At least I know some of the players at the world cup, not all people can say that you know."

Fred rolled his eyes, "You probably only know Viktor Krum."

I smiled, "Probably."

"You don't even know what you don't know, I bet you only like him cause you think he's hot." Fred said, making fun of me, sure I only knew one or two players, but that was something, and he was totally wrong about that comment too.

"Excuse me! I have more morals than that, and anyways, Viktor Krum isn't even that hot, have you ever seen him walk? Looks like a duck, not my type."

Fred chuckled a bit, "Just because you don't like him doesn't mean you have to insult the way he walks."

I sniffed, maybe I had defended myself a bit aggressively, but maybe I was also trying to remain as discreet as possible that I was totally available. Avoidance wasn't helping in the case of 'Get over Fred' it was actually making it worse, cause I wanted to spend more time with him the more we were apart.

"Yes it does."

The night was wrapping up, and soon the floating candles around the table were lit, making the whole garden look ethereal.

Probably the last thing that happened before we all went to bed was Harry asking questions about the world cup, Mr Weasley was insisting we go to bed though.

"- the match went on for five days once!" He said, and I saw Harry's eyes light up.

"I hope that happens this time!"

Percy, who was using his wand to pick up dishes, presumably at the insistence of his mother, gave his two cents, "I hope not, can you imagine the state of my in-tray if I was gone for five days?"

Fred leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, "Yeah, someone might slip dragon dung in again, eh, Percy?"

Percy's face turned from pompous to puce, "That was a sample from Norway! It was nothing personal!"

Whatever he said next was all cut out as Fred leaned over to me, "It was," He said smirking, "me and George sent it."

 **A/N: Thanks for reading!**


	17. The World Cup

**Chapter 17: The World Cup**

"Come on girls! Up you come!"

I dragged myself off of my cot and onto the floor, as did Hermione. I felt like I had barely been asleep before Mrs Weasley was waking us up. All my stuff needed for the trip was already packed, I had done so yesterday.

It took another visit from Mrs Weasley to get all of our things together, and when the three of us stumbled into the kitchen, I felt like a zombie.

"Why are we here so early." Ginny groaned, rubbing her eyes.

"We have a bit of a walk to the Portkey," Mr Weasley answered for her, and I sighed, not wanting to do physical exertion so early in the morning.

"We're walking to the Quidditch World cup?" Harry asked, confused.

"Oh no, of course not, it's much too far-" He started.

"George!" Mrs Weasley said sharply, and everybody jumped, including George, who looked rather irritated.

"What?"

"What's that in your pocket?" Mrs Weasley shrieked. I rolled my eyes, not this again, I didn't understand why Mrs Weasley couldn't just accept what her kids wanted to do.

"Nothing." George said, a bit shiftily, he evidently wasn't a very good liar when it came to hiding things from his mother.

"Don't lie to me! _Accio_!" A brightly purple wrapped toffee came shooting out of George's pocket, and with several more accios, toffees and sweets were flying from every part of them, both Fred and George had obviously been trying to smuggle out as much as they could, I felt bad, it was obvious how much work they had put into it.

"We spent six months on those!" Fred shouted angrily.

"Oh, a fine way to spend six months!" Mrs Weasley shouted just as angrily back, "No wonder you didn't do better on your OWLs!"

Yikes. I probably shouldn't have said anything, but I never did anything that I was supposed to, "Mrs Weasley, that's not very fair." I said quietly into the silence of the kitchen.

The mood was tense to say the least as we left the house, the twins didn't even say goodbye to Mrs Weasley, and instead just stormed out onto the cold dark lawn, waiting for the rest of us.

I left with Ginny and Hermione, it was still very dark, and the moon glittered above us, for a split second, Lupin's face flashed in my mind, then it was gone. Instead in it's place was Sirius, he hadn't sent anything back after my previous letter with Guava, and I didn't really expect him too, it was probably hard to keep in contact with anybody while you were on the run.

I walked with Ginny at the back of the group, we were chatting, but as we started to trek up a rather steep hill, we both became too breathless for talking. The hill was slippery and as I struggled up, my feet kept getting caught in rabbit holes and the like.

"Wow." Was all I managed to breath out as my feet found flat ground, my bag felt like it weighed a hundred pounds.

"Alright, spread out, the portkey should be here somewhere." Mr Weasley said, wiping his face under his glasses, squinting at the ground.

We spread out, and I mainly used my feet to scuff along the ground, since it was still too dark, for even though my eyes had adjusted, the portkey was probably still gonna blend in pretty well.

"Over here Arthur! We've got it!" A yell broke through the misty morning and the sound of eight people panting and walking. A man who had a ruddy face, and sort of a scraggly beard, was shaking hands with Mr Weasley just at the top of the hill.

As we all assembled at the top of the hill surrounding them, Mr Weasley introduced us, "This is Amos Diggory everyone," I smiled at the man, and noticed another guy behind him, who I think was a year above me in school. "He works in the ministry for the Department of Regulation and Control for Magical Creatures, and I think you know his son, Cedric."

Yes, that was his name, he was nice I thought, and handsome, but I'd never talked to him, I just knew him as the Hufflepuff seeker who was a good sport.

But speaking of quidditch, the conversation turned sour as Mr Diggory started talking about how Harry fell off his broom and Cedric didn't, luckily Mr Weasley intervened, "Must be nearly time," He said briskly, looking at his watch, "Let's get to the portkey and go."

"Just touch it…" Amos' voice was drowned out as ten people with bulky backpacks tried to all touch one boot at once, My finger found the bottom of the laces, and the nine of us stood there in the chilly morning, breath fogging, squished around a boot, waiting for something to happen. I was touching three different people at once and was almost sure somebody's hand was dangerously close to my butt. But the goosebumps were just starting to rise on my arms and legs under my sweater when things started to happen.

It was all very fast, I had never travelled by portkey before, and might I say, only in an emergency would I ever do it again. It felt like there was a fish hook caught in my stomach and somebody was reeling it in at the speed of light, I felt as if I was flying forwards too fast to comprehend, but my finger stayed glued to the old boot. Then we were gone, speeding through the air, or something, so fast that it almost felt like my face was going to peel off, we were spinning too, and I felt my shoulders hitting who I thought was George and Hermione as we sped onwards.

Then, at the same speed at which the process started, it ended. My feet slammed into the ground so hard my knees buckled, and I found myself lying on the ground with everybody but Mr Weasley, Mr Diggory, and Cedric, who had all somehow managed to stay upright, I started to drag my body up off the ground, but was shocked when Cedric offered a hand to help me up off the dirt instead, which I accepted. He really was one of the nicest people I'd heard of, and now met.

"Seven past five from Stoatshead Hill." A very strangely dressed man said, him and his colleague were standing there recording people coming to the game, what they were wearing seemed to be their interpretation of muggle clothing. Safe to say, it was very wrong.

There was a kilt and poncho on one man, and a ugly tweed suit with horrible thigh high rubber boots. Him and Mr Weasley talked, then we were off to our place to pitch the tent, but first we had to talk to the muggle who organized our place.

"Are you Mr Roberts?"

"Yes.." I stopped listening then, instead just fidgeting around with my pack, waiting to get going, but something that Mr Roberts said made all of us kind of stop in our tracks. " I had two try and pay me with huge gold coins the size of hubcaps ten minutes ago!" I was wondering why they were using a muggle in the first place, and now, as Mr Roberts started talking again, I noticed something in his eyes becoming clearer, as he talked about weirdo's and foreigners, this was actually rather dangerous.

Luckily, a man came out of the cottage we were paying at, and said a sharp _obliviate_ to keep the man's memory clean, and free of wizards, but it still begged the question of, why were they hiring muggles in the first place?

As we left and started going up the rows of tents to our place, it was obvious that some wizarding families were much more ignorant about the rules than others.

"Yes because a striped tent with live peacocks doesn't just scream magic." Fred scoffed as we passed said tent, it was no wonder Mr Roberts was getting suspicious with all of this lying around, I hoped our tent was just normal, like when I used to go on camping trips with the orphanage as a kid.

"Can't resist showing off, but here we are!" We stopped at the end of the long row, in front of a sign that said 'Weezly' I guess it can't all be fun and games.

"Right, so no magic allowed!" Mr Weasley said excitedly, bringing out the tent, "This shouldn't be too difficult, muggles do it all the time don't they Harry? Where do you reckon we should start?"

Harry was silent for several seconds, looking just a bit overwhelmed, but I stepped in to help, as I sort of knew what I was doing, and so did Hermione, and before long the two little tents were standing proud in their place. But the issue was quickly becoming clear, these tents were tiny, when Bill, Charlie and Percy came later, there would be eleven of us, and I just couldn't see how eleven people could fit in tents made for two each.

I walked into the tent, after Fred and George, wondering how they had fit in there already, when I was reminded just how cool magic was. The tent on the inside was a three roomed flat! It was huge! As we walked around, first going through the guy's side, and then the girls, where Ginny, Hermione and I would have the party of our lives (probably not but one could dream), I was just amazed. After we finished getting to know the place, Mr Weasley started dividing up jobs for us to do to get ready.

Everybody but Ron, Harry, and Hermione was tasked with finding wood for a fire, so really just me, Fred, George, and Ginny. Which was fine by me, we walked among the tents, all of us rather quiet, personally I was still half asleep. We had just split up, me and Fred, and Ginny and George, when something woke me up, that something was very bright, colorful, and smacked into my face, almost knocking me over.

"Ah!" I let out a rather high pitched shriek as I stumbled back into Fred, who looked equally startled.

"Is that a parrot or something?" He said, pointing to where the bird now sat on the ground, with a sinking feeling, I knew exactly what type of bird it was.

"Guava!" I grimaced,and Fred seemed to rub his eyes for a moment, like he wasn't believing it.

"Ugh, probably just somebody's bird that they brought to show off, kind of like those peacocks back there." I lied quickly, but apparently Guava the parrot did not like being lied to, and very quickly took to flying at my face again.

"Guava! Guava! Guava!" She yelled flying as my face over and over again, buffing her wings in my face.

"Ow! Jesus!" I yelled, swatting.

"Get away you lump!" Fred added, backing away, I followed his lead, and without much care for firewood, the two of us were soon sprinting in a random direction away, listening to Guava's cries of her own names fading behind us, maybe she didn't like chasing too much.

I stopped, out of breath, and tugged on Fred's arm to get him to stop too. "What the hell was that?"" He panted, flipping his hair out of his eyes.

"Probably exactly what I said," I gulped in air, god I was so out of shape. "somebody's evil parrot."

"Yeah but it had an envelope."

I sighed, not liking the lying game very much, "Then it ran into us, forgot about the delivery, got pissed, then attacked."

Fred shivered in the cold morning air, "I hate birds, anyways, where are we?"

I spun around, not recognizing where we were, the tents seemed to go on forever, I'm sure getting lost would have happened eventually, just not this soon. "Aha, I have no idea." I laughed a bit, it was sort of funny that we got chased into being lost by Guava the parrot.

"Leave it to us to get chased by parrot into fuck knows where." Fred said, a smile also coming to his face, "We could cause serious damage, and no one would suspect us, cause our tent is nowhere around here."

I rolled my eyes, "One, you have nothing to start a riot with, second, our tent could be around the corner for all you know dingbat, we've been here all of twenty minutes, we could have run back into the direction of where we came from."

"Ugh, how upsetting." Fred deadpanned, actually looking kind of upset that he couldn't start a riot, which didn't surprise me.

"Come, on, we really can't be that far, let's just walk back to where we ran from, we might even see some people we know on the way."

"Are Alicia, Angie, or Lee here? Do you know." Everybody who knew Angelina well had permission to call her Angie, I did it all the time too, but I still fought from letting a sour expression go to my face, I pushed it down, _I will not be jealous_ , I thought to myself.

"I have no idea, let's see if we find them on our way."

We walked up and down rows and rows of tents, joking about the various people we saw, and it was very interesting. There were people from all over the world here, it seemed each tent had a different country's flag flapping over the door, and all the different languages and accents around me as people woke up was so confusing yet interesting. We walked through areas colored green with shamrocks for the irish, and other spots had the dark silks of Bulgaria draped so it felt like you were walking through a tunnel of red. Then there was very colour in between from countries all across the globe.

People kept trying to sell us things too, sweets, gadgets, all sorts, everything was so expensive that we could get any of it, but it sure looked good. My mind kept wandering back to Guava, I knew she had a letter for me from Sirius, and I was curious, but I knew she'd find me again, though maybe when I was around less people, and less could go wrong.

Fred and I found our way back eventually, but the whole place was so fun I couldn't wait to go back out exploring again, for now though, we ate breakfast, and as Bill, Charlie, and Percy arrived, I could tell that things were just getting started.

 **A/N: Filler I know**


	18. Panic

**Chapter 18: Panic**

"When Ludo Bagman screws you over, don't come crying to me."

"It doesn't help that you bet on the most unlikely combination of events either." Percy said snidely as he slid by, still bitter about Barty Crouch calling him Wetherby earlier.

"Oh stop, we know what were doing." George said dismissively, waving his hand in the air.

I didn't answer though, since as night fell, more and more salesmen were appearing, and I saw some rather pretty shamrocks on a cart I wanted to get.

"Do you actually think that Ireland will win even though Bulgaria catches the snitch?"

Fred scoffed, "Of course we do, or else why would we bet all our money on it." I could think of some other reasons, but alas, I kept quiet as George started speaking

"Krum is way too good to _not_ catch the snitch, but Troy, Mullet and Moran are some of the best the league have seen in years, they'll get a 150 point lead just as Krum catches it." He finished, seemingly going over a checklist in his mind of what he expected to happen.

"That's awfully specific but alright." I shrugged, but let it go.

I took a galleon out of my pocket, I didn't have much money in my school trust fund or anything, but I had saved up some from various things over the years, many of them bets, and had enough to buy myself a shamrock.

I was just smiling at the salesmen and pinning it to my shirt when I heard the sound of wings behind me. The salesman's eyes went wide, he pointed behind me, "Is that bird yours?" I knew Guava was there, and shrugging, I just turned away.

"Yeah, sure, she's mine." I was alone, having walked a few tents away from our own to buy the shamrock, and ducked behind another near tent, seeing Guava waddle after me, I beckoned fiercely, and with a soft squawk, she flew the last few steps.

I was just lucky that this whole area was such a maze that I could hide easily, "Alright Guava, I'm kinda miffed that you had to deliver the letter right now, but-" I cut myself off, it was useless, Guava was just staring at me with a vacant expression, apparently she only knew certain words, she obviously wasn't as smart as some other english understanding animals I had known.

With a scowl, I took the letter from her, and opened it quickly.

 _Vern,_

Immediately I rolled my eyes, I don't even know how he found out about the nickname.

 _I have tried to teach Guava more words, but she's stubborn, just Guava it is for now. My birthday present for you is in the back of the envelope, hope you like it, still doing well, but communications could be cut short in the future, hope you're doing well too._

 _Snuff_

I felt troubled, this letter was much shorter and less thought out than the first, written with a scrawl rather than print, the seeming hurriedness of it gave me cause for concern, but Sirius said he was alright, so that must count for something.

I looked in the back of the envelope to find out what my birthday present was that he sent me, I was wondering what he sent that could fit inside an envelope, but, as I already knew, magic did crazy things.

Turns out magic was not needed to make the gift smaller, because it was a small signed bank notice from Gringotts. Apparently an 'anonymous citizen' had donated three hundred galleons to my Hogwarts run bank account or trust fund.

"Oh m- I can't-" I was so surprised that I actually started chuckling a bit, three hundred galleons was about five thousand pounds in muggle money, roughly, and only if my calculations were right. But that was still a huge sum of money.

Some would think that money was just a thoughtless gift, and sometimes it was, but when I read the scrawled note on the back of the notice, I knew it wasn't.

 _You shouldn't have to rely on your friends for new clothes, buy them yourself._

How Sirius knew about me never having the money for stuff like clothes was beyond me, but Angelina and Alicia had basically bought me two outfits each for christmas and my birthday since second year and were my main suppliers, and while I would forever appreciate them for that, actually having money to buy my own things was a freedom I had never hoped of having so soon.

It made me think more highly of Sirius, that's for sure. Thinking of him as my dad was a thing that might never happen, but he was definitely becoming a friend.

 **111111111**

I was just reaching the tent again after tucking the letter in my pocket when the sound of a gong rang out. Within a second, a trail to what was presumably the stadium was lit by red and green lanterns, like christmas but slightly different.

Twenty minutes of walking through the woods got me seriously hyped, I had found an abandoned Irish flag on the ground and was now waving it around as we walked. As a game, Fred, George, and I had a competition to see who could get the most high fives, almost everybody was ok with getting one, and I had wracked up a total of a hundred and fifty by the time I could see the stadium. Safe to say I won, Fred only got a hundred and thirty-seven, and George came in with a hundred and twenty-five.

My laughing and teasing breaths were stolen when I saw the quidditch stadium ahead, nothing I had ever seen before could compare, it was the single biggest structure I had ever seen. Hogwarts was probably bigger, but it was several rooms, this was just one, one room that could fit an entire neighbourhood.

"Seats a hundred thousand." Mr Weasley said from behind me.

I turned to Fred and George behind me, "My new goal is a hundred thousand high fives now." I grinned, George rolled his eyes, but Fred grinned with me, and gave me a high five himself.

"Hell yeah!"

"Top box, Straight up!" The witch checking our tickets said, and we climbed up the purple velvet lined staircase, watching as everybody but us filed out into various other levels before we finally reached the very fancy top box.

"Yes!" I hissed, as I sank into a very comfortable chair, in between Fred and George, which was bound to make for exciting, albeit confusing, game commentary.

"A display from the team's mascots will proceed that match," I heard Hermione reading from the programme, that would sure be interesting.

"Hey what do you guys think the two mascots will be from the teams?" I asked excitedly.

"Leprechauns from the Irish, obviously," George started.

"Yeah but what from Bulgaria, I wonder." Fred finished.

I shrugged, I wasn't exactly up on Bulgarian culture and had no idea what or who was native to their country.

"My wife Narcissa, and my son Draco." A voice one could only be described as slimy was heard by the three of us, and we whipped our heads to the side to see Lucius Malfoy and his family there. The last time I had seen him was the summer before fourth year, I hoped that I could have gone longer than only two years without seeing his horrible arrogant face again. A shame really.

Ludo Bagman from earlier was just starting the match when I redirected my attention to the goings on in front of me.

"Welcome to the final of the four hundredth and twenty second quidditch cup!" Bagman screamed out over the stadium, we all stood up as one, a hundred thousand people moving in unison to cheer for one of two teams.

"Think you can get a hundred thousand high fives? I bet you can't even get four hundred and twenty-two." George mocked into my ear. I elbowed him in the side.

"Give it up Weasley, I'm better and you know it." I mocked right back.

We were cut off when the Bulgarian mascots came in, and immediately I knew what was gonna happen. The Veela danced and glowed their way across the pitch, and when the music started, it was all I could do not to laugh at the dumbfounded expressions of every person that liked women in the stadium.

Even Ginny was entranced, which made me laugh, though they were very pretty, I think everybody, regardless of who you liked, was attracted to the Veela, for how could you not be.

As the Veela sat down, to many cries of protest, I reached up with both hands to pat both Fred and George on the shoulders. They hadn't gotten up or anything, but were leaning forward very attentively in their seats.

"Come on down now." I said as I pulled them both back into their seats, so they weren't perched on the edge like they were preparing to take flight into the center of the pitch.

"What?"

"Huh?" They both looked very confused, I just kind of giggled.

"Veela." It was all that needed to be said, before a green comet raced into the stadium through the air, though it was actually made of thousands of leprechauns. The gold they rained down while performing an air show of sorts would have been cool, if it wasn't for the fact that leprechaun gold disappeared in a few hours anyway.

People scrabbled for the coins as they clattered down into the seats, I picked up a piece to look at it, it was very realistic, I had to give the leprechauns credit for their flawless forgery.

"And now, ladies and gentleman, kindly welcome the Bulgarian national quidditch team! I give you Dimitrov!"

A player moving so fast that he looked like a red blur sped out from an entrance far below us, the Bulgarian side of the pitch went wild as more of their players came shooting out.

"Ivanova! Zograf! Levski! Vulchanov! Volkov! Aaaaaaand Krum!" As Krum sped out onto the field, the loudest applause was heard from both sides of the field, apparently everybody liked this guy, Bulgarian or not.

"And now, please welcome, the Irish national quidditch team!" It was our time to go wild, the other half of the stadium stood up and yelled as loud as they could. On the pitch I could see the leprechauns on the ground doing a little dance as their team came racing out of the opposite end of the pitch.

"Connolly! Ryan! Troy! Mullet! Moran! Quigley! Aaaaand Lynch!" This time seven blurs coloured green zoomed out to more applause.

"And here, all the way from Egypt, our referee, and Chairwizard of the International Association of Quidditch, Hassan Mostafa!" A small and skinny man, dressed in gold that matched the stadium walked out onto the pitch, to a less loud applause from the audience than the players got.

He carried a large wooden crate under his arm that I assumed held the balls. Mostafa mounted his broom, and kicked open the crate that was lying on the ground, I only saw the quaffle and two bludgers fly up, the snitch was gone already, and with the sharp blast of his silver whistle, Mostafa sped off after the balls.

"Theeeeeeey're OFF!" Bagman's voice echoed around the stadium as I leaned forward in my seat to watch more. "And it's Mullet! Troy! Moran! Dimitrov! Back to Mullet! Troy! Levsky! Moran!"

It was the most spectacular game of quidditch I had ever seen, it was so fast that my eyes never stopped moving as the players darted around each other, the quaffle just a red blur, passing from hand to hand.

I found myself really getting into it, even though I hadn't exactly learned all the players names yet and who was who, I was having fun, and the shamrock I bought earlier was twinkling and rotating on my shirt.

"TROY SCORES!" Roared Bagman and half the stadium jumped up out of their seats, including me. Fred and George both gave a loud shout as they high fived over my head. The leprechauns rose from the ground again, back into their shamrock formation. Troy was doing a lap of honour of the pitch and as he went by, I was waving my arms in the air, jumping up and down.

The match continued, but within ten minutes, Ireland had scored twice more, meaning I just hadn't sat down, there was no point. There was constantly something or someone to cheer for, whether it was a great play, or actually scoring a goal, I couldn't be bothered to get off my feet.

Finally though, Bulgaria managed to score, and I saw the Veela get up in preparation as all the red clad supporters cheered and waved flags.

"Fingers in your ears!" Bellowed Mr Weasley, and Fred and George complied, obviously not wanting to get distracted, the Veela weren't _that_ enchanting to me though, so I felt safe to keep watching. They only danced for a few seconds before Dimitrov had the quaffle again.

But the whole stadium let out a collective gasp as Krum and Lynch, the two seekers, raced towards the ground. I was smacking Fred's arm vigorously to get his attention, "Oh my god they see the snitch! Oh my god they're gonna crash!" A second later, I found out I was only half right.

Krum pulled out of the dive so late I would be shocked if his feet didn't brush the grass, but Lynch got the short end of the stick, a dull thud could be heard throughout the stadium as he ran straight into the ground.

"Oh come on! He was faking you idiot!" George yelled out slamming his fist down on the armrest of his chair.

"Faking?! You mean Krum didn't see the snitch?" I asked to no one in particular, I wasn't exactly up on my quidditch moves.

Charlie turned away from talking to Ginny, who looked horrified but slightly delighted at Lynch's form below, to answer, "Yeah, it's called the Wronski Feint, pretty dangerous, but seekers just dive like they've seen the snitch, and basically try to flatten the other seeker by pulling up last second."

"That's so cool." I murmured, spinning back to the game.

"And sneaky." Fred said.

"I know it's great." George grinned as Lynch finally got up. We clapped and cheered, but I knew he would be off his A game after that.

But apparently the rest of the Irish team was now only more fueled to win than ever, it took a mere fifteen minutes of the hardest play I had ever seen to pull ahead by ten more goals, making Ireland have a one hundred and twenty point lead on Bulgaria. I would never admit it to their faces, but Fred and George's bet was actually becoming more likely by the second.

Something very interesting happened the next time Mullet flew towards the goalposts, Bulgaria's keeper was flying out to meet her when the keeper seemed to almost fight her off from coming any closer. Immediately, I knew it was a foul, and Mostafa blew his whistle to signify that Ireland would be given a penalty on Bulgaria.

The Leprechauns jumped into the air to form some taunting, and rather funny, sentences at the Veela across the pitch when the Veela retaliated, by flipping their long hair around, and starting to dance again. No one had to be told to stuff their fingers in their ears this time, it was just a given.

But I started laughing when I realized that the most important person on the pitch had forgotten to plug his ears. The referee looked like a fool, making poses and twirling his oversized moustache around his fingers in the Veelas direction.

It went on for so long that a mediwizard from the sidelines had to run out onto the pitch and kick Mostafa in the shins a few times to get him out of his trance, and when he was, he did not look happy.

Mostafa was shouting at the Veela, and it was all I could do not to laugh with joy. Organization was key to being successful in everything you did, but chaos was sometimes necessary, if just for the sole purpose of it being so much _fun_. That was a motto I lived by, and this moment was rising in the charts of chaos that I had seen in awhile.

The referee wanted the Veela off the pitch, which the Bulgarian beaters came down to argue about, but then Mostafa got pissed and sentenced another penalty for Ireland. We all waved our green flags, served them right, the Veela were distracting, though it was probably their intended purpose.

After Ireland took their two penalty shots, gameplay resumed, though more aggressive than ever, tensions were rising between the two teams, and when Moran got nearly knocked out of the air by Dimitrov, those rising tensions unraveled and broke.

"Foul!" All the Irish supporters screamed at once, our voices echoing out as one across the pitch, and indeed it was a foul. The leprechauns this time formed themselves into a giant middle finger towards the Veela, which I stood up and loudly cheered for, except for when the Veela got really angry about it. In seconds where there once were beautiful women, now stood beaked and winged beasts, throwing balls of fire across the pitch.

"Holy shit!" I found myself yelling, jumping backwards in shock, much of the stadium did the same, and as gameplay resumed on over head, there was a pretty epic battle raging on below.

Moran scored, which I cheered loudly for, but louder than that, were the screams of the Veela in the midst of their fiery battle with the Leprechauns, whose dancing and laughing only served to make the Veela angrier. The ministry wizards who had flowed out onto the pitch were only helping in the way of containment, as while the fight was not any worse, it definitely wasn't getting any better.

But as Krum got hit with a bludger right in the face, the whole crowd gasped and groaned as his nose started to freefall with blood, but the referee's broom was on fire due to the Veela, and as Lynch pulled into a dive, what certainly looked like a real one, Krum had no choice but to follow, letting his nose paint the field red down below.

As they hurtled towards the ground for the second time that night, I felt sort of exasperated.

"I bet they're both gonna crash this time, Krum can hardly see with his own blood in his eyes." George said, and he was right, Krum had so much blood on his face it would be a miracle if he didn't crash.

"They better not fucking crash." Fred said, leaning over the railing.

"Well Lynch certainly will." I was right, Lynch turned into a playfield pancake for the second time this evening. But Krum? Well, Krum had caught the snitch.

No one seemed to know what was happening, but as more and more people read the scoreboard, they realized that even though Krum had caught the snitch, Ireland had won.

 **111111111**

"Don't tell your mother you've been gambling." Mr Weasley warned, as we walked back to the tent.

"Don't worry, we won't, we've got plans for this." Fred said happily, and Mr Weasley sighed and shook his head, he obviously didn't want to know what those plans were.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up yet, what if he just gave you fake Leprechaun money or something?" I asked, I was joking though, for as foolish as Ludo Bagman was, I didn't think he was dishonourable. Fred and George both looked at me, their faces identical masks of pure exasperation from my constant negativity. So I grinned, "Nah I was just joking, good job guys, I really didn't think that would work out for you."

"Thanks so much." George said sarcastically as the gleeful crowds started to reach us from the stadium. Leprechauns zipped by overhead, and I waved my Irish flag in the air some more as we paraded back to the tents.

Nobody felt like sleeping much, and even after we said goodnight, Ginny Hermione and I stayed up for hours talking about the plays, the players, and what we thought. Our conversation was so intune, that even when the noise of the Irish celebrating abruptly stopped, we didn't notice. Only when Mr Weasley came bursting into our tent to drag us outside because of danger did I realize something was wrong.

I stood beside Fred in the waning firelight, my face a mask of horror. A troupe of people dressed in black robes and masks were grotesquely contorting four people into unimaginable shapes above their heads. As the black-robed people passed a burning tent, the floating people's faces were revealed to be the muggle from earlier, Mr Roberts, and what looked to be his wife and children. I gasped and stumbled back a step, knocking into Fred as I did so, who held onto my shoulders, and when I looked at his face it was as if he couldn't believe it himself.

Yes, something was definitely wrong.


	19. Run

**Chapter 19: Run**

Bill, Percy, and Charlie emerged from the other tent, fully dressed. "We're going to go help the ministry." Mr Weasley said, turning towards them, a grim look on his face."You lot need to get into the woods and stick together! I'll come find you when we've sorted this mess out."

I was terrified as Bill, Charlie, Percy, and Mr Weasley sprinted away. The mob was coming closer, and I could see other ministry wizards darting all over the place.

"C'mon." Fred said, and grabbed Ginny's hand, we all followed, and I clutched my wand tightly just incase. We ran towards the trees and eventually became immersed in them. The coloured lanterns that lit the path earlier were now extinguished, and various noises filled the air as we plundered on.

"Guys stop!" I whisper shouted, and Fred, George and Ginny rounded back, we were all panting. I turned around to check on Hermione, Harry and Ron only to find that they weren't there.

"Oh my god they're gone!"

"What?" George said sharply, peering around me, when he realized what I said was true he cursed, "Shit."

"What are we gonna do?" Ginny asked nervously, looking around the dark woods.

"I don't know Ginny, I suppose wait it out until things seem better, than go back to the tent."

George and I both nodded, "But first things first, Lumos." I said, igniting my wand tip, the light poured around us illuminating the pitch darkness to something more visible. Now I could see in the white light just how scared everybody's faces were, including my own.

"Isn't that illegal?" Ginny asked, referencing my use of underage magic.

I shrugged, "They have better things to worry about, I bet a bunch of people here are using underage magic."

We sat for a long time, it must have been about thirty minutes. After we had all settled down on a huge toppled log, I deactivated my wand, not wanting to make us visible. Nobody moved, and nobody made a sound. The only thing we could hear were various bangs from what sounded like the campsite, and the sounds of people running and screaming. I was freezing cold, and every bone in my body ached from sitting still for so long, my feet had gone numb by the time the light and noises had started to fade away.

My brain felt like it had been stomped on. I was so scared, a riot was breaking out and people were being practically tortured at a place that was meant for fun. It was horrible, and I decided to stop thinking about it for the time being, I would need a clear head for whatever else might happen.

"We should try and go." George said, breaking the silence, we all stood up, and ventured out as quiet as we could.

"Wands out." I hissed, and even Ginny held hers tightly in front of her.

We walked back the way we came, and when we emerged from the woods, it was darker than before. Most of tents that were on fire previously had been extinguished, there were more ministry officials around, and I could see the group of people far off in the distance, only because they carried torches with them and still held the Roberts family, I turned away, not wanting to see the horrible things that were happening.

"Theyll be alright won't they?" Ginny asked quietly. I sighed, usually Ginny was so strong, and so tough, it was just her personaloty, but right now, she sounded so scared, and it made me scared.

"Honestly, I'm not sure." Fred said, grimancing, I knew that he would never want to be the bearer of real bad knews to his younger sister, but I had to agree, Ihad no idea what was going to happen.

"That's not very reassuring." Ginny answered, a frown on her face.

"I know."

My brow furrowed, before I heard a shout from behind us, down the path back into the woods. We spun around, and seeing shadows and lights on the trees rounding the bend, we jumped right back into the grove where we were sitting before, it was too dangerous just to wait around, hoping it wasn't some person ready to float you off the ground as well.

I flattened myself to the ground in the bushes, Ginny to my right and George to the left. We watched several pairs of black boots stomp past us. I had no idea who it was, but I wasn't going to risk looking when it could be more bad people.

I held my breath as they passed, but suddenly a flash of green light burst in the sky. I heard myself start to gasp and bit my own cheek, tasting blood. The black boots had stopped at the flash of green light, and suddenly started running, one pair twisted into nothingness right in front of me. The green light was still shining, I shifted my eyes to George, who looked terrified, and when our eyes met, he nodded.

We slowly pulled ourselves up, after the people were gone, brushing dirt off ourselves.

"What is that?" Ginny said, pointing to the sky.

I looked up and saw what was causing the green light. A giant green skull was floating in the air, with a snake moving and coiling out of it's mouth. It was massive, easily covering the sky around the whole area, and almost looked like a cloudy constellation, because it wasn't quite solid, and the brightness of the stars from behind showed through it.

I shook my head, it must of been something really bad to make the people in front of us flee. "I have no idea."

"Let's just find the tent, maybe Harry, Hermione and Ron are there." Fred looked shaken as we started walking, my eyes darted around, and I kept checking behind us to make sure no one was planning a sneak attack. We emerged back into the open, there was more ministry wizards than before and several people were pointing to the skull in the sky, their faces worried.

We filed back towards our tent, the landmarks easier to make out now that I had travelled the route a few times before. As we saw the tent and approached it, Charlie, Bill, and Percy were sitting just outside, they all stood up as they saw us, Ginny was the first one to run to her brother's arms, she was obviously pretty scared. We all were though.

"You guys are all ok?" Charlie asked, leading us all into the bigger boys tent to wait.

"Yeah, but we lost Harry, Hermione, and Ron pretty early on." I said, sitting down on one of the chairs.

Bill looked worried, "I'm sure they'll be ok." he said, but didn't sound so sure.

"I am just shocked that a riot this extreme happened around all the ministry protocols." Percy said, shaking his head. I knew that beneath all the ministry bullshit, Percy had been worried about his siblings.

"What's wrong with your arm Bill?" Fred asked, we all turned to look at Bill, who was holding what looked like a bedsheet to his arm.

"Oh it just got cut, won't stop bleeding though, and I'm rubbish at healing spells." Bill answered, and I noticed that Charlie had a rip in his shirt, and Percy's nose was bloody.

We sat for a while, not saying much, just kind of pondering the night's events, who knew a great time could turn so bad so quickly.

"What is that skull in the sky though?" I asked, for while I was sure the symbol seemed kind of familiar to me, I didn't know from where.

"Oh, that." Charlie said with a grimace, "It's You-Know-Who's symbol, he used to shoot it up over buildings where he had killed someone."

Even though I couldn't see them, I'm sure Fred, George, and Ginny's faces were all masks of horror, I was sure mine was at least.

"Didn't we learn about that in defence last year?" George asked, and I knew where I had seen it before.

"Oh yeah! I'm surprised you remembered that though, weren't you asleep that day?"

George gave me a look, "What, are you saying I can't learn and sleep at the same time?"

Bill snorted, lightening the mood a bit as all of our faces broke into some sort of grin. "Usually no, apparently in your case though, the human body must work differently"

Charlie jumped up, "Wait, I think I hear Dad." He said and stuck his head out the flap of the tent.

"How?" I asked, I couldn't hear anything but people shouting and conversing outside, how Charlie could pick out Mr Weasley's voice from that I would never know, but he was right and just seconds later Mr Weasley came in, followed by Hermione, Harry and Ron. At least they were ok.

"Did you get them Dad? The person that conjured the mark?" Bill said sharply when everybody was in the tent.

"No," He started, "We found Barty Crouch's elf holding Harry's wand, but are none the wiser about who actually shot the spell."

" _What?"_ Bill, Charlie, and Percy all exclaimed at once, and frankly, I had to agree, it seemed extremely strange of a story.

"Harry's wand?" Fred asked.

" _Mr Crouch's elf?"_ Percy said, sounding absolutely thunderstruck.

I rolled my eyes a bit, I knew Percy was practically in love with his boss, but this was a bit too far. Mr Weasley, Harry, Ron, and Hermione took to explaining what had happened and how they wound up near the green skull.

"Well, Mr Crouch was right to get rid of an elf like that, she directly disobeyed his orders!" Percy said indignantly.

But Hermione, who I always thought got on better with Percy than the rest of us, rounded on him, "She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time!" I had to agree with her, there was no sense in blaming Winky when the proof was only subpar.

"Hermione, a wizard in Mr Crouch's position can't afford to keep an elf who runs amok with other wizards wands!" Said Percy pompously, looking surprised that Hermione of all people was challenging him, but she wasn't done yet.

"She wasn't running amok! She just picked it up off the ground!" Hermione shouted.

"Ok, can someone just tell me what that thing was in the sky?" Ron intercepted.

"I told you Ron, it's You-Know-Who's symbol, I read about it last term." Hermione sighed, but Ron still didn't seem to understand what was the big deal.

"It's just a thing in the sky, I don't get it."

"You-Know-Who and his followers sent it into the sky whenever they killed. The terror it inspired… you have no idea. You're too young. Just picture coming home, and finding the dark mark over your house, and knowing what you were going to find inside. It was everybody's worst fear." Mr Weasley said quietly, a somber look on his face.

I looked down, just imagining seeing it over your house and knowing someone you loved was dead inside, just waiting for you to find them. It was horrible, and made me feel cold all over just thinking about it.

Bill removed the sheet from his arm, checking his cut, "Well, it didn't help us much. The death eaters all fled when they saw the mark. They just disappeared before we got the chance to unmask any of them. We managed to catch the Roberts family though, their memories are being modified right now."

"Death Eaters?" Asked Harry, "What are Death Eaters?"

"What You-Know-Who's supporters called themselves," Said Bill, "We probably saw what was left of them tonight, all the ones that somehow remained out of Azkaban at least."

"We can't prove it was them Bill, though it probably was." Mr Weasley said hopelessly.

"But why were they levitating muggles? What's the point?" Harry asked, oh he was so naive.

"The point was probably to make a point." I piped up, and everyone sitting in the makeshift circle kind of nodded.

"It's their idea of fun, they probably had a few drinks and wanted a reunion." Mr Weasley said disgustedly.

"But if they were Death Eaters, why did they run from the mark? It's _their_ symbol innit?" Ron asked.

"Use your brains," Bill said, "half of them escaped Azkaban by lying and saying they had never even been loyal to You-Know-Who, and that they were just imperiused. If he really was back, they would probably be more scared than any civilian once he found out that they lied to save face."

"So, whoever conjured the mark," Started Hermione slowly, "were they doing it to scare the Death Eaters away, or did they attempt to rally them and it backfired?"

"Your guess is as good as ours Hermione." Mr Weasley said, and stood up. "Let's all go to bed, your mother is probably worried sick, and we should try and get a few more hours of sleep before taking an early portkey home."

We all filed to bed, and this time, there was no excess talking in between Hermione, Ginny, and I. Despite having so much information swirling around my head, I found it easy to fall asleep just about as soon as my head hit the pillow.


	20. When Everything Went Amok

**Chapter 20: When Everything Went Amok**

When we joined the queue to take a portkey back to the Burrow, I checked my bags, just to make sure everything was still there, mainly my bank notice, I was definitely going to buy myself something nice. I hadn't written Sirius back, but I wanted to ask Harry if they'd been conversing, maybe he had an idea why Sirius' letter seemed so rushed.

We took an old tire home, and trekked all the way back to the Burrow, except not as light hearted as before. I was starving, and didn't even talk to anybody on the way back. As a matter of fact, no one was really talking.

I saw the Burrow outlined against the bluish sky, as the sun was rising behind us, as we rounded the lane a cry echoed out.

"Oh, thank goodness! I've been so _worried_!" Mrs Weasley had obviously been waiting for us in the front yard, and was still wearing her slippers, her face was pale and strained, and in her hand she had a crumpled up and crushed newspaper, which she dropped on the ground as she embraced Mr Weasley.

"I've been so worried- _so worried_!" I saw the newspaper on the ground, a bold headline scrawled across the top that I couldn't read from this angle.

"You're alright, you're alive." She muttered distractedly and looked at us with red rimmed eyes, "Oh boys!" Mrs Weasley seized Fred and George into an almost inescapable hug, and only the mutters of them telling her to stop strangling them could be heard.

"I shouted at you before you left! What if you had died? And the last thing I'd told you was that you didn't get enough OWLs?" Mrs Weasley started to sob, Mr Weasley was there though, and helped pry her of the twins, and led her inside.

We all crammed ourselves into the tiny kitchen, half of us actually got chairs, and the rest were just sitting on the counter. Hermione brewed Mrs Weasley a cup of very strong tea, which Mr Weasley put a shot of whiskey into, and we all settled in to read the newspaper that was previously on the ground.

"I knew it, 'lax security, national disgrace', Rita Skeeter's done it again." The article written was horrible, and seemed to condemn the people trying to help almost as much as the actual death eaters.

"That woman has it in for the ministry! Just last week she was saying we were wasting our time with our cauldron bottom reports!" Percy said furiously.

"I thought you were." I heard Ron mutter, and Percy shot him a withering look.

"I'm mentioned," Mr Weasley said, his eyes scanning the paper, and as Mrs Weasley choked on her tea he backtracked, "Not by name of course."

He read us the section, and I had to say, it was twisting lies from nothing.

"She really has a way of making everything seem…" I trailed off, the right word escaping my mind.

"Terrible? A scam? Outrageous?" Charlie listed off a few and I nodded.

"Yeah, that sounds about right."

Mr Weasley and Percy made arrangements to go to the ministry as soon as possible, and I just made myself some tea.

"Has there been any post from Hedwig?" Harry asked Mrs Weasley, who said there wasn't, and it reminded me of Sirius and how I wanted to talk to Harry about if he had any letters, that's probably what he was waiting for from Hedwig.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all left, but I wanted to catch them, and left the kitchen without a word.

"Hey Harry!" I called up the stairs, my hand resting on the railing, all three looked back, and I decided that since they all knew the truth about Sirius, there was no harm in talking to them all at once.

"Yeah?" He said, and I climbed the stairs to meet them.

"I have to ask about Sirius." Instantly all their faces changed.

"Why? Have you heard from him?" Harry asked urgently. I was just about to answer when Hermione intervened.

"Let's not do this here." She said, and ushered us all to the top of the staircase and into Ron's room, somewhere I'd actually never been, it was very orange, that's all I had to say.

I stood by the door, while they all settled themselves around the room.

"So has he owled you?" Harry asked again.

"Yeah, twice, once right before you got here Harry, and the other just yesterday morning on the campsite-" I was cut off by a loud bang, and a garbled yell. I must have looked pretty terrified because Ron was chuckling.

"That's just the ghoul." He said and I nodded, tapping back on the roof to the rhythm of the ghoul tapping back.

"Vern what are you doing?" Hermione asked, as I was now knocking on the ceiling, the ghoul knocking back every time I did.

"We're making a rhythm." Hermione just shook her head.

"Wait you said you got two letters in the past two weeks?" Harry asked.

"Yes."

"I haven't gotten _any_. Hedwig hasn't come back yet, how do you get them back and forth so fast?" Harry asked, looking sort of downtrodden.

"Well Sirius originally sent me the first letter using a parrot, and I sent my own letter back with the parrot, her name is Guava, so we've just kept using the parrot. I'm assuming she might be magical." I said, and Hermione looked at me suspiciously.

"Are you joking?" She asked, her eyes narrowed.

I stopped hitting the ceiling, instead putting my hands on my hips, "Everybody always thinks I'm joking about things, what if I just have an interesting life?"

Ron shrugged, "Seems accurate, you did just find out that the man who's been in prison for twelve years for several murders he didn't commit, is your dad."

I winced, "Yeah, I've actually been trying to forget that he's my dad." It wasn't that I didn't want a dad, I just had no idea to do with the information, I also didn't know him.

"But, you're trying to forget that he's your dad? He's your father!" Harry said a bit too loudly, considering this was a secretive conversation.

"Yes, and he's your godfather, I was hoping for the same kind of relationship between us." I said, trying to make them understand where I was coming from.

"But he's your _biological_ dad." Was all Harry said before I cut him off.

"Look, I know that we're related, but I've spent as long as I've remembered assuming that my parents were good for nothing, probable drug addicts, that had a baby, didn't know what to do with her, then decided to drop her off at an orphanage when she was three." I said exasperatedly, "Finding out that your mother is dead and your father actually loved you is a feeling I never thought I'd feel, and I would prefer if I didn't have to worry about relationships when said father is still on the run." Saying everything that was pent up felt nice, but I felt the tears start to prickle at the back of my eyes as emotion overcame me.

"I'm sorry-" Harry started, but I cut him off.

"No, no it's fine, I'll see you guys later."

I left Ron's room, closing the door behind me and almost ran down the steps, I wanted to go to the village, we used to go the shops a lot when I was younger, and it might distract me from what was happening. That I was thinking about Sirius, I didn't want to think about it, I knew I was procrastinating, but I never wanted to think about it. It was awkward and scary and something I never thought I'd ever have to do.

I stopped on the next landing down, breathing hard, thoughts racing through my mind as I finally let them in. The thought that this man I barely knew, knew me, he knew when my first steps were, my first words, it was terrifying and panic inducing. I had to make a relationship from nothing, with someone I knew nothing about. I started down the stairs again, I just had to get away, punch a tree or something. Anything to distract me from the inevitable.

Running into Fred at the most inopportune times was becoming a trend, this time I stopped myself before actually running into him, because I had done that before. "Good god."

"Oh hey, you know we seem to run into each other so often." He said, turning to face me.

"Oh really, well I think it happens so often that you could be planning it." I snapped, my temper getting the best of me, and tried walking past him.

"Hey Vern, you alright?" He said, throwing a hand up and stopping me.

I ground my teeth together and solidly pushed the tears back. Swallowing the lump in my throat, and calming my racing heart, I tried to talk normally, "Yeah, I'm just going to the village, see ya." I actually managed to go past his hand and get to the second landing before he caught up with me again.

"Oh really? I'll come with you, Mum doesn't like anybody going anywhere alone."

"Don't you wanna go back to sleep? It's barely nine." I said, attempting to get him to leave, deep down I knew it wouldn't work though.

"Nah, I feel pretty awake, you know what? I think the village has a farmers market on in the mornings, Mum usually goes down to it, but she's upstairs,so we could just get it for her." I conceded, Fred usually didn't pry, and hopefully wouldn't ask if I was alright again. If he did I feared I would lose it, and just completely break down.

"Sure, but shouldn't we tell someone where we've gone?" I asked, grabbing said list from the kitchen counter.

"Nah." Fred held the kitchen door open for me as I folded the paper up.

"Ok, well, if we get murdered, I'm killing you." Fred just grinned as we set off towards Ottery St sun had been up for several hours, but it was still rather low in the sky, and shined in our faces as we walked the worn down path.

We lost track of time, to put it lightly. Sure, everything on Mrs Weasley's list had been scratched off with a pencil we found on the ground, but did that stop our adventure? Of course not.

I had muggle money, because it was useful, and used it to buy us sandwiches from a stall, and we walked up and down the market street. We petted people's dogs, laughed about some of the outrageous things there were on sale, and Mrs Weasley wasn't even mad when we came back home. I think she was just trying not to be mad at Fred or George until she couldn't stand it anymore.

Sufficient to say, my bad mood was gone by midday, and the bad things in my small world were forgotten, just how I liked them. There was no day like tomorrow after all.

 **111111111**

"Haha you got prefect again!" George crowed as we walked down diagon alley. I had just opened my school supplies letter for the first time since getting OWL results and the little gold and red badge fell out onto my palm, much to my displeasure.

"I was the worst prefect ever, I think I did two things all year." Sighing, I opened the rest of my letter and promptly gasped as I read the words 'Formal Attire'.

"Formal attire!" Fred exclaimed, obviously having just read the same selection as me, "For _what_?"

"Beats me." I shrugged, "But I'm not going to pass up an opportunity to buy fancy clothes, the deadline isn't until christmas eve, so we don't have to get them now anyways."

"That's a relief," Fred faked wiping his forehead, "I don't think I could take Mum fussing over us for one more minute."

The week before school started passed with surprising swiftness, Mr Weasley and Percy were at work all the time, but Percy had come home early the night before we went to Hogwarts, and for once we were listening to what he was saying, all about his hectic job.

I was only half listening, because packing my trunk was taking up most of my direct attention, I was sorting through my old and new books, deciding if any were too crappy to use again.

"Don't you dare blame your father for what that wretched Skeeter woman wrote!" Mrs Weasley snapped, I dropped the potions book I was examining.

"Look Percy, if Dad hadn't said anything, she would have just said it was disgraceful that no one from the ministry had commented." Said Bill, who was losing a chess game to Ron, "She can't make anyone look good. Remember when she interviewed a bunch of us curse breakers, and the only thing she said about me was that I was a 'long haired pillock'?" Ginny and I made eye contact and snorted.

Mrs Weasley grimaced, "Well, it is just a bit long-"

" _No_ , Mum."

I got up and put my last book in my trunk as another rumble of thunder sounded from outside, and the rain lashed against the windows. I stretched, and noticed Fred and George bent over a piece of paper, whispering, which was always suspicious when it came to them.

"What are two doing?" Mrs Weasley asked, when a silence came over the living room.

"Homework." Fred said without looking up, and I scoffed under my breath, they would never actually do their homework.

"Don't be ridiculous you're still on holiday." Said Mrs Weasley.

George made a face, "Well, unsurprisingly, as some might say, we have left it to the last minute."

"Are you by any chance making another order form for _Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes_?" Mrs Weasley asked shrewdly, her eyes narrowing.

"Now Mum," Fred finally looked up, his hair fell in front of his eyes and he had a fake pained look on his face. "If the train crashes tomorrow, and we die, how would you feel knowing the last thing we ever heard from you was an unfounded _accusation_?"

Even Mrs Weasley laughed, and as Mr Weasley came home I made my way over to the twins.

"Okay, so what are you actually doing?" I asked, sitting down cross legged on the carpet.

"Exactly what we said we weren't doing of course." Fred said, after a glance at George.

"Unbelievable."

"Is it really?" George said, shrugging, "I'm sure we've done this before."

"Anyways, since you guys did only get three OWLs, what NEWT level courses are you even taking?" I wanted to know which OWLs they had even passed.

"Well, Fred and I are both taking Defence and Charms," George started, and I acted fake surprised that they even got that many, in actuality I wasn't surprised at all. They were very smart, and just tended to use their knowledge for other, more prank themed things.

"Then George is taking Herbology, and I'm taking Transfiguration." Fred finished, writing something else down on the paper in front of him, "Which ones are you taking again?"

"Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Astronomy, Herbology, Beginners Medicine, thats a course taught by Madam Pomfrey, and Defence." I listed off, counting my courses on my fingers.

"Well, good luck with seven NEWT level courses, what kind of speech would you like me to read at your funeral?" Fred said sarcastically.

"Thanks for your concern, but it will be fine, seven is less courses than I took for OWLs, and it will give me an excuse to ditch prefect duties, win win situation." I smugly said, crossing my arms.

"Yeah, win win until you're being read a bad speech from Fred while lying in a casket." George said, with one eyebrow raised.

"Just get me out of here dear god." I muttered jokingly as the night came to an end.

We all went to bed, and Ginny, Hermione, and I wasted no time in speculating what me might need dress robes for, Hermione had imagines of something very grand, blue and puffy, the whole Cinderella story. While Ginny wanted something more muted, maybe green, I just wanted a nice looking dress, and I knew that Angelina and Alicia would help me find something that was just perfect.

 **A/N: I know it's boring now but school starts next chapter so that should make things more interesting.**


	21. Something Exciting This Way Comes

**Chapter 21: Something Exciting This Way Comes**

"I don't even wanna talk about NEWTs." Fred said with finality as we stood on the platform, ready to start our term.

"Well get ready, 'cause that's all every teacher is going to be talking about for the next two years." I replied, adjusting my trunk beside me, so that it was on it's end.

"I only have three classes, it should be fine."

"Hmm, you say that, but one of your teachers is McGonagall and she's a hardass about marks." Fred just gave me a look.

Bill and Charlie had come to the station to see us off, but were being annoyingly evasive about something that was happening at Hogwarts this year. Every time we asked what they were talking about, they'd just say something else.

"Man, I so wish I was back at Hogwarts this year." Bill said, looking at the train, a half smile on his face.

" _Why_?" George said impatiently, as Charlie had already gone through his spiel of possibly seeing us for some unknown reason.

"It's gonna be an interesting year, I might even get some time off to watch some of it…" Bill said, purposefully looking away.

"A bit of _what_?" Ron asked, I just shook my head, it wasn't worth it to try and find out, it was obvious they weren't going to tell us.

The train whistle blew, and we all loaded ourselves in, as the train started to move away, neither Fred or George would stop pestering Mrs Weasley for answers, only when her and Bill were out of sight did they finally stop.

"Damn."

"That's kind of annoying." I said, echoing George's statement.

"Kind of? It's _very_ annoying."

"We're finding out tonight whatever it is." Fred said, and began to go through the corridor of the train, George and I in tow. We found Alicia first, she was looking for me and Angelina, and thought that Lee was in a compartment more on the other side of the train.

"Meet up here when you find him okay?" Alicia said, and when Fred and George had put their stuff away in Alicia's chosen compartment and departed, she grabbed my arm and pulled me into the compartment, sliding the door shut behind me.

" _What_?!" I asked, giving her an accusing look, but she just beamed at me.

"Dress robes!" She practically sang, and suddenly it made sense, I let myself get excited with her, and found myself smiling widely too.

"I know right! But wait, what even are dress robes, are they like dresses? Or fancy wizard robes?" I asked, for I had been wondering what it meant, and Hermione wasn't very helpful, because she had no idea either.

"Well, for dudes, it's more like normal wizard robes, but better, and for us, I think its like long dresses and capes put together, at least that's what the picture in the magazine looked like." Alicia said, beginning to rummage through her things, presumably to look for the aforementioned magazine.

Suddenly I realized something, "Oh, I know where Lee is!" Alicia looked up.

"What?" She asked, obviously confused.

"The prefects meeting, actually I think I'm supposed to be there too." I said, wincing, not even five minutes into the school year and Lee Jordan, notorious trouble maker, was already better than me at school duties.

"Yeah ok, I'll find the twins, this is a wild goose chase, great way to start sixth year, mass confusion." Alicia's annoyed muttering at our conversation being interrupted trailed off as I rushed down the train corridor, not caring who I was pushing aside.

I arrived in the carriage where the meeting was held in a quiet fashion, just slipping in and sitting beside Lee, who had the audacity to give me a reproachful look. Luckily either the head boy and girl didn't notice or care that I was a bit late, and didn't even break in their tirade.

When the meeting was finished, and we all got our schedule, Lee and I walked back to the carriage that Alicia had earlier.

"So what Vern," Lee started as I looked over my patrol schedule, noting how the dates and times were sort of weird. "Are you turning over a new leaf? Are you prepared to become a total rule abider?" He teased

"Shut your cave fish bait." I muttered, not looking up.

Lee chortled at me, "That's a new one."

"Ok somethings going on this year, we have a bunch of meetings with foreign embassies." I said, confused as I pointed out the times and dates to Lee, "And Bill, Charlie and Mrs Weasley were all hiding something at the train station. Something that was happening at school this year."

Lee just shrugged, "I don't know, I just wanna find out who's quidditch captain now that Oliver's gone."

"Oh yeah, well I don't think it's Fred, George, or Harry, cause none of them said anything about it and you'd think they would." Lee nodded.

"My money's on Angie, no one's got more drive than her." He said, and I agreed.

"I bet she'll have so much fun yelling at all the people who try out for keeper." I said, imagining how it would go down and smiling to myself.

We walked into the compartment to find everybody had assembled in our absence. Alicia, Fred, George, and Angelina were all sitting around doing various things.

"So Angie, let's see that quidditch captain badge." Lee said, rubbing his hands together as he sat down beside her.

But Angelina looked confused, "I'm not captain, I assumed it was one of you guys." She said, pointing to Alicia and the twins, who all looked shocked as well.

"What?" We all practically said in unison.

"It's not us or Harry." George said, indicating to himself and Fred.

"It's not me, and I asked Katie on the platform and she said it wasn't her either, we thought it was you." Added in Alicia.

"The general consensus was that it was going to be you Angie." I said, to nods from around the compartment.

"Well, it's not, and it doesn't seem to anybody else on the team either, so what's going on here?" She said, crossing her arms.

"Yeah ok, somethings going on at school this year." Lee said, everybody who wasn't a witness to our conversation looked over.

I explained, "On our prefect schedules, we have a bunch more meetings than usual, and some are detailed with foreign embassies, which isn't normal, there's no quidditch captain, and your whole family was insinuating shit on the platform." I said motioning to Fred and George, who nodded.

"Well, whatever it is, they've got a lot of shit coming if they plan on cancelling quidditch or something." Alicia said, looking worried.

Angelina mock shuddered, "Ugh, don't even talk about that."

 **111111111**

" _Ahag_ ," Was the wheezing sound that left Angelina's mouth as Dumbledore announced that quidditch would not be happening this year, I pat her arm, trying vainly to comfort her.

"This is due to a very exciting event taking place at the school this year, an event that will take up much of our teachers time and energy, I assure you, your will not miss quidditch with-" But Dumbledore was cut off as the doors to the great hall burst open with a bang, and a man who could only be described as terrifying started hobbling down the center aisle to the head table.

All eyes were on him and for good reason, there didn't seem to be a part of his face that wasn't horribly scarred. A chunk of his nose was missing, a glass eye twisted around sickeningly in his head, and he had a wooden leg that looked to be a replica of one from a horrific beast.

He shook hands with Dumbledore at the head table and took a seat in the one that had been previously unoccupied.

"That's Mad-Eye Moody" Fred whispered in awe, pointing at the man.

"I guess he's our new defence teacher?" I asked, waiting for Dumbledore to address it, but he didn't, and instead continued talking about why quidditch had been cancelled.

"As I was saying, Hogwarts has the privilege of hosting an exciting event throughout the school year. One that has not been hosted for over one hundred years. It is my pleasure to announce to you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at our school this year."

"You're JOKING!" Fred broke the silence loudly, as well as the tension caused by Mad-Eye Moody's arrival, everybody laughed at his astounded expression, even McGonagall cracked a smile.

"No, Mr Weasley, I am not joking," Dumbledore replied.

My eyes were wide, and I smiled in excitement at Alicia, who caught my eye over the table. _This_ was why we had foreign meetings, two other schools were coming to ours! As Dumbledore explained the tournament and how it was going to work I felt myself get more and more excited.

There was an age ban, which most people, mainly the twins, found outrageous, but I thought it was sensible, and wouldn't have placed my name in the running even if I was allowed, eternal fame and fortune wasn't really my thing.

"I turn seventeen before Halloween, I'm going for it." Angelina said, practically slamming her hand down on the table to punctuate herself.

"I'll root for you, even though what I think has nothing to do with who wins." I said, as we started to walk upstairs.

"Moral support counts Vern." She said, smiling. I knew the password from the train, so Alicia, Angelina and I didn't have to wait for the first years and instead just went right into the common room.

Rain, thunder, and lightning carried on outside, but in here, the fire was lit and the weather outside made the room feel even more cosy than it usually did.

We walked upstairs, and as our dorm door materialised around the bend, Alicia practically ran in and did a huge belly flop on her bed. Angelina and I followed suite, and the three of us stayed up well into the evening.

The fact that classes started tomorrow had no effect on our excitement. We laughed and chattered about the tournament, and the two schools coming from around Europe.

Only when a seventh year knocked on our door and told us to shut up did we finally lie down, and despite how excited I was, I found myself falling asleep, probably because I couldn't wait until morning.

 **111111111**

The storm blew out overnight, and while it was still cloudy as I dragged myself out of bed, it was certainly bright.

Alicia was already up getting ready, as it took her so long to do so, and Angelina was still asleep. The routine of getting up in the morning felt like it had never been interrupted.

Alicia was the first to get up, she set herself alarms, and had everything ready so that she could take as much time as she needed to get ready for the day ahead. Then I would wake up, always to the sound of Alicia getting ready, she was rather clumsy when she wasn't playing Quidditch, and always dropped things. I would inevitably wake up and get ready alongside Alicia, who would leave half the bathroom counter for me to use. The last to get ready would be Angelina, we would always have to wake her up manually, as she was the deepest sleeper I knew. Then she would grumble and groan as she lazily got ready in under ten minutes.

This happened every morning, and today was no different, we gathered up our school bags and walked to the great hall in time for breakfast. We met Fred, George, and Lee already down there, crowded around a potions book, one look and I knew that the page was flipped open to the recipe for Aging Potions.

"That's not gonna work." Alicia practically sang as we sat down, I pulled some toast over to myself and began eating it.

"Why not?" Lee asked, looking personally offended at her suggestion that their plan would fail.

"Ageing potions are third year stuff, that's not gonna fool the judge." I said, shaking my head.

"How's the judge gonna know if I'm under seventeen if I look seventeen." George said, not looking up from copying down the ingredients.

"What, do you actually think the judge is a person?" As I said this, all three of them gave me their undivided attention, looking alarmed.

"What do you mean the judge isn't a person?!"

"I've read about the tournament before, in past tournaments, it's always a sentient, magic infused being, like the sorting hat, something that practically will know you better than you know yourself." I answered Fred, I had read about this tournament before. Back in the day, death was super common, but one year all three champions died and they had to stop it. I knew that that was why you now had to be of age, so if something happened to you, you couldn't sue the ministry or something.

"That makes this slightly harder." George said, scratching something off his list.

"We'll just make the potion more potent." Lee said, and George wrote something else down.

Angelina gave a deep sigh before eating her fourth egg, "Some people just don't know when to give up."

 **111111111**

"That little slimy git." George spat, as he slid onto the bench for dinner.

"At least he got turned into a ferret." I reasoned, we just witnessed Draco Malfoy being an absolute dick about Mr Weasley in the great hall, and the twins were understandably, rather pissed. I was too actually.

Luckily our crazy defence teacher, Mad-Eye Moody, had saved the day.

Fred, George and Lee shuffled down the bench to see Ron and Harry, probably to talk about Moody, so I followed, not sure where Angelina and Alicia had gone after class.

"What do you think Vern." Ron asked me, his eyes filled with awe at the prospect of meeting the teacher.

I shook my head, "He's batshit crazy and more paranoid than a rabbit in a field of hunting dogs, but, yeah, he's cool as hell."

Him and Harry grinned. I ate my dinner and went upstairs, and found Angelina and Alicia in the common room, looking at a magazine of dress robes.

"Guys!" They both looked up at me.

"Oh hey Vern, what's up?" Alicia said.

"Homework, NEWT courses suck." I sat down beside them on the couch, pulling out my Transfiguration textbook, and some parchment, there were ten hard theoretical questions to answer by tomorrow, and I wasn't having it, "Did you guys not go to dinner?"

"We just picked up some stuff and left, my Wizard Wear magazine came in the post this morning and I've been waiting all day to look at it, it's super affordable too, we should totally all buy our robes from here."She gushed, showing me various images, I had to respect Alicia's knowledge for fashion, she never held back in telling people if they looked good or not.

I found myself instead of writing answers to Transfiguration questions, penning the response I had never made to Sirius' last letter. I had taken the letter, and withdrawn some money from my bank account, but Guava had just left instead of waiting for a response like she had the first time. I hadn't known what to write then, and as I crossed out a sentence, I realized not much had changed.

"I'll, be back alright, I'm just going to the library." I told Angelina and Alicia, they just nodded. I took off my long cloak, it was turning into a hot September night, and I didn't want to be uncomfortable since the Owlery was outside.

I took my quill and parchment and left, walking down the familiar hallways until I got to the Owlery. It was truly a mess in here, I knew it was cleaned all the time, but there were over a hundred owls living in here, the place was covered in poop.

I wondered if a normal owl could get to where Sirius was, I had no idea, but I called one of the school owls down anyways, it was worth a try.

"Oh shit." I realized that if I didn't know where Sirius was, how could I tell the owl where to go.

"Nevermind." I said to the great black bird, who ruffled his feathers at me and hooted indignantly before flying back up to his perch.

I wrote my letter on the windowsill, balancing the parchment on the rough stone.

 _Snuff_

 _Sorry it took so long to reply, there was an incident at the Quidditch World Cup, and I couldn't find time to write back._

 _Thank you so much for the present, it means so much, you'll have to tell me your birthday so that I can get an equally good present back._

 _I'm doing fine, hope you are too,_

 _Vern_

I proof read my letter, hating how formal I sounded whenever I wrote to people, Alicia always teased me about it.

I folded the letter up into my pocket, and began to walk towards the exit. I wasn't sure how I would get the letter to Sirius without Guava, the last time I had seen her was two weeks ago at the World Cup, and she hadn't waited around for my response.

"Guava!" I spun around so fast I almost fell over, but there she was, Guava the giant multicoloured parrot was sitting on the windowsill where I had just written my letter.

"How… what?" I was speechless, and had no idea how Guava knew where I was. My best guess was that she had been following me from a distance ever since the World Cup, since I never saw her.

Despite my initial confusion, I gave my letter to her, and she squawked before flying off into the twilight, her bright colours making a sharp contrast to the dark forests of Hogwarts.


	22. St Nick

**Chapter 22: St. Nick**

The weeks of Fall flew by, the castle got steadily colder, and the dark green of the Forbidden Forest changed to a burnished red. Leaves swept along the ground, chased by the bitter cold winds bringing Winter.

I had heard back from Sirius rather quickly, only a few days difference. He delivered the worrying news that he was flying North again, and that a series of rumors he heard meant it was better to be closer, but I wasn't so sure.

I hadn't written him back, thinking if he was travelling he couldn't really read and open my letters. I had told Guava to stick around though, but only if she wanted to. Something about the way the parrot would appear made me think that she was some sort of magical breed that could teleport or something, she did travel presumably thousands of miles in only a few days.

Seven NEWT level courses was proving to be very hard work, I was doing homework and assignments all the time, and turning in good work was becoming increasingly hard as the school year got into full swing.

Angelina and Alicia had taken to having mini quidditch practices with Fred and George on weeknights and weekends, Lee would often join in, but I usually just did homework on the side.

Once or twice I had found time to play, Fred would lend me his beater's bat and broom and yell at me to take out my anger. It worked, I also found I had quite good aim when he was yelling just a bit too much, watching the shocked expression flit across Fred's face as the bludger whistled past his ear was one of the most satisfying things I'd ever seen.

"Haha, you suck Weasley!" I yelled down at him from the air, he put his hands on his hips, and it made me think of his mother.

"Nice one." George said ,and high fived me as he flew past to pass the quaffle to Alicia, who was planning on scoring on Lee for the hundredth time. Her and Angelina were getting increasingly creative with the ways they pushed the quaffle through the hoops, the best one was when Alicia actually gave the quaffle to Lee, then pushed _him_ through the hoop while he was still holding it.

"Dinners soon let's wrap this up." Angelina yelled and flew down to the ground, we all followed, I sheepishly handed back Fred's broom and bat to him, he jokingly curled his lip and I rolled my eyes. It was times like this when I was reminded of all the blatant romantic tension that always was between us. I found it increasingly harder not to think about.

We walked back up to the castle from the pitch, it was getting cold, and I was looking forward to dinner in the nice, warm Great Hall. When we arrived though, there was a huge crowd of people around a sign right beside the entrance to where dinner was currently being served.

"What's that?" Angelina mused.

I shrugged, "Let's find out." Fred and George might have been short in their family, only being about six feet tall, but it was tall to most other people, and allowed them to look over the heads of the crowd and read the sign.

 _TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT_

 _The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o'clock on Friday 30th of October. Lesson will end half an hour early, students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast._

"So we'll have a day to submit our names." Angelina said, looking determined, it was well known by now that she was planning on entering, and lots of student from Gryffindor had shown their support for her already.

"Only a week to perfect the potion." George said to Lee and Fred, who had a determined look on their faces as well.

The following week seemed to fly by, but Angelina, Alicia and I noticed something weird that was going on with Fred and George, they were constantly bending over parchments, and whispering about things. We'd thought it was just them with their ageing potion at first, but that had to be done by now.

Then we'd assumed it was for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, but I'd seen the order forms, and they didn't look anything like that. Every time we tried to approach them about it, it would just be brushed off as if it was nothing, and it was unusual for the twins to be so secretive in their endeavors.

Angelinas birthday was the twenty-seventh of October, only a few days before the other schools were coming, we didn't get her anything for the date because we couldn't, but next Hogsmeade visit, we were paying for lunch.

The day that Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were arriving, the castle almost felt alive. It was alive of course, and constantly tried to trick people, but today that was worse. The staircases rotated faster than normal, and people in all the portraits were running up and down the walls, spreading the news around the castle. By midday, teachers had to charm the paintings still because they were shouting so loud it was interrupting lessons. Not that people were paying much attention anyways.

Angelina, Alicia, and I met up in our dorm, we all basically threw our bags down to get ready.

"Of course today was the day I get crushed bat spleen on my white shirt." Alicia grumbled, changing into a new one.

I had to do the same, but with my tie, I had spilled wine on it after attempting to turn it back to water non-verbally, instead it just jumped out of the glass.

We made our way down to the great hall, where McGonagall was filing all the Gryffindors into lines, the other heads of houses were doing the same. I was behind Lee and in front of Fred. We walked down to the lawn in front of the school, and as we waited, Dumbledore took up a position at the very back of the crowd, while other teachers flitted around, making sure everybody was in place, before joining him in a line.

"How do you think they'll get here?" Alicia peered around Lee to ask me.

"Something extravagant for sure." I answered, feeling excited for the year more than ever.

A hush settled down over us as we waited for the school's students to arrive.

"Aha! The delegations from Beauxbatons have arrived!" Dumbledore called out. I looked around, trying to figure out where to look.

"Where?" I heard some girl ask.

" _There_!" A Ravenclaw sixth year yelled out, pointing to a large shape skimming over the trees of the Forbidden Forest. As it drew closer and prepared to land, gasps rang out as we realized what the shape was. A dozen winged horses, bigger than any horse I'd ever seen, were pulling a carriage the size of a large house through the air.

They skidded to a stop, the first several rows of students ducked out of fear of the giant horses hooves. The carriage was stopped for only a moment before the door burst open, and a boy in pale blue silk jumped out to lay a carpet down. Who followed him was the biggest woman I had ever seen, she was probably the same size as Hagrid, and the need for the carriage to be so big had become apparent.

She greeted Dumbledore in heavily accented English and I heard him say her name, it was Madam Maxime. We clapped for them, and a bunch of teenagers around my age filed out of the carriage. Their uniforms looked to be purely made of blue silk, and most, if not all, of them were shivering in the cold evening air.

Madam Maxime exchanged a few more words with Dumbledore, which I couldn't hear, as the murmuring from all the Hogwarts students was becoming rather loud. I even saw McGonagall threatening to cast a _Silencio_ on some fourth years. We parted to let the students from Beauxbatons pass, they were going into the castle it seems, while we were still waiting for however Durmstrang was going to get here.

We stood in silence, the anticipation making me feel colder than I was. The fiery winged horses that pulled the carriage were snorting and stamping, and were the only noise to be heard, except for when a rushing sound started. It sounded like a clogged vacuum. Other people were looking around in confusion, But Lee was the first to spot it.

"The lake!" He shouted, his arm flying past my face and pointing to the Black Lake, "Look at the lake!"

We were standing on a hill, and could see the lake shimmering, except it wasn't just shimmering, it was being distorted, the water looked like it was swirling down a drain of some sort. A pole rose from the center of the whirlpool, and got taller, when the ropes and sails appeared as well, Everybody who was confused 'oohed' and 'ahhed' and the giant vessel ascended onto the lake.

Through the lit up portholes, you could see figures moving towards the top of the boat, which was bobbing as it fully emerged. An anchor was thrown and a plank thudded down, and people began to walk across it. The ship was huge, and had a strange skeletal look about it, with ragged sails and broken beams.

The people who came off the boat, all looked to be huge, big and burly, and very tall. But as they came closer, I realized that their bulk was just created by the furs they had draped over their shoulders, like giant cloaks.

The man who lead the students spoke to Dumbledore, and beckoned forward one of his students. The guy looked very familiar but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Excited whispers broke out from the crowd though, and I turned to Lee.

"Who is it?" He looked at me, seeming astounded that I didn't know.

"It's Viktor Krum!"

 **111111111**

"I don't care what any of you say, Krum is a great quidditch player, and I want his goddamn autograph if only for that." Angelina practically snarled as we made our way up the steps into the entrance hall.

"Amen to that- Lee calm down." Alicia threw over her shoulder at lee, who was jumping to look at Krum. I personally wasn't that interested, sure, Viktor Krum was a cool guy, but he was only a year older than me, and something told me he probably wasn't that interested in being bombarded by people at all times.

When we had all settled down in the Great Hall, with Beauxbatons at the Ravenclaw table, and Durmstrang at Slytherin, Dumbledore stood to make some remarks about the feast.

"Good evening, ladies and gentleman, ghosts, and guests. I have the great pleasure of welcoming you all to Hogwarts, I hope your stay will be both comfortable and enjoyable." He said, beaming around at all of us in the hall.

A girl from Beauxbatons snorted when Dumbledore said 'comfortable' and several people exchanged looked around the hall, including me and Angelina, who mimed a gagging expression, I smirked, but controlled my laughter as the feast was now beginning.

There was so many different foods, obviously Beauxbatons was in some part of France, and Durmstrang had to be relative to eastern Europe or Russia, because the new dishes looked to be from those two areas.

We ate, and talked, and looked at all the new people that had arrived. Angelina and Alicia were talking about what boys they liked, and kept trying to get me interested, I couldn't be though. There was only one boy I was interested in, and he wasn't from some foreign country.

Barty Crouch, and Ludo Bagman, who I had sort of met previously were there to explain the tournament to us. The Goblet of Fire was revealed, and as we went up to bed, nobody could stop talking all night.

 **111111111**

"Come on then, the pea brains are doing it." Alicia's sharp voice filled my eadrums, I sat up groggily, and looked at Angelina, who was doing the same.

"Huh?" I wanted to go back to sleep, but Alicia was having none of it, and pulled me up from bed, I just stumbled along, not too willing to fight it.

"Fred, George, and Lee have taken that stupid ageing potion and actually think their gonna trick the cup." She said as she pulled out some jeans and a shirt from my truck and threw them at me. I got dressed and brushed my teeth, before pulling on my boots, which Alicia had also thrown at me earlier. I went down to the common room and was immediately assaulted by Lee and the twins.

"Vern! Your coming to see us trick a great magical being!" Fred exclaimed, holding what looked like the ageing potion in one hand.

"No, actually I came to laugh at you failing miserably." I said, grinning, Fred just snorted.

"That's what you say now." Alicia and Angelina joined me, and we watched them all take a few drops each of the potion. Very little happened, Lee seemed to grow maybe an inch, but Fred and George looked exactly the same.

We all arrived at the Entrance Hall to find that a lot of people were already there. Angelina had her name on a piece of parchment, and she was going to enter hers, but we waited for the twins and Lee to go first.

Fred stood on the age line for half a second before taking a step in, I folded my arms, watching intently, George stepped in after him, obviously thinking it had worked, but before Lee could join the two, popping noises started originating from the line. With a sizzle, they were both thrown backwards, and thudded onto the stone floor.

But it wasn't done yet, with two more pops, identical white beards grew from Fred and George's identical faces. The whole hall was laughing, including myself. Even the twins found the humour in the situation and were laughing at each other. Dumbledore was there and informed us that two other students had already tried the same thing.

They left for the hospital wing, with Lee still laughing in their wake.

Angelina walked up to the Goblet with trepidation, everyone who was previously laughing had gone quiet. She stepped over the line with nothing happening, because she was the right age. When she dropped her paper into the goblet, the blue flames turned red and sparked, before settling down again. Everybody applauded her, and while Alicia went into breakfast with her, I decided I would rather see how Fred and George were getting on with their beard removal.

I walked down the hallways from the Entrance Hall to the Hospital wing. There was what looked to be a Durmstrang student walking down the hallway towards me, but I paid him no mind, none until he spoke to me.

"Excuse me, do you know vhere to get out of here?" He asked in heavily accented english, stopping me.

"Sure, yeah just go back that way, and you'll see where to go outside." I said, giving him a small smile, if only to be polite. I had thought that the size of most Durmstrang students was just their furs, but maybe I was wrong, this guy was built like a boulder, but he had a kind face.

"Thank you." He seemed to take a long time to speak, and he just stood there for a few moments, which confused me.

"Can I help you with anything else?" I asked slowly, shuffling from one foot to the other.

He seemed to look down shyly, "I just vanted to tell you that you are very pretty." I inhaled and choked a bit, very taken aback by what just left his mouth.

"T-th-thank you." I stuttered, out feeling redness spread up through my chest and cheeks.

"I am Nicholas, though you may call me Nick." Nick introduced himself, and held out his hand.

I found myself giggling like an idiot at the whole situation, and shook his hand with mine, "Veronica."

"Lovely to meet you Veronica." He over pronounced the vowels when he talked, and the letter 'V', but as he left, I found the whole affair incredibly endearing. It wasn't every day you were called pretty by some random guy, and there was a definite spring in my step after that.


	23. Three Became Four

**Chapter 23: Three Became Four**

"He called you _what_?!" Angelina's exclamation had me shushing her, we were in a remote hallway, but you never knew who was around.

"That's so sweet." Alicia said, a dreamy expression on her face, it was well known that in between the three of us Alicia was forever the romantic.

"What was his name again?" Angelina pressed, leaning forward.

"He called me pretty, yeah it was sweet, and his name was Nick." I answered all their questions at once.

Alicia did a little dance, "I hope they stay after the champions are chosen."

"What else have they got to do, and I'm sure they'll stay to support their champion from the school." I shrugged.

"The dinner is starting soon, are the twins de-bearded by now?" Angelina snickered when Alicia spoke.

"Yeah, I saw them after Nick, and they're both rooting for you Angie, just so you know." I said, as we began walking back through the maze of hallways.

"The whole House is rooting for you." Alicia agreed with me, and while Angelina could be stoic, as we walked into the great hall, she had a proud smile on her face.

The dinner went by at an agonizing pace, the same food as the feast the previous night was laid out, but it wasn't as fascinating as before. Even though it was Halloween, and the usual decorations had been brought to the tables, nobody was paying attention to them. All the attention went to the Goblet of Fire, which had been moved to right in front of the head table.

We all ate as quick as we could, and Dumbledore, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime commanded the rapt attention of the whole hall as they stood. Dumbledore extinguished all the candles except for the Jack O'Lanterns on the tables, making the Goblet shine brightly from where it was sitting.

We sat for at least a few minutes after Dumbledore explained the proceedings. It was very quiet, and out of the corner of my eye I noticed Angelina's leg shaking as the seconds ticked on. The goblet changed from white blue to the same red it had when people put their names in, a flame shot up suddenly, carrying a piece of parchment with it, that fluttered into the air, to be caught by Dumbledore.

"The champion for Durmstrang," He read, holding the parchment at eye level, "will be Viktor Krum."

The hall erupted as all of the students from various schools clapped and cheered for the international quidditch star. He got up, and walked up the aisle to the front of the hall before going through the door mentioned previously.

"Bravo, Viktor!" Professor Karkaroff yelled so loudly that we could all hear him over the thunderous applause. The clapping and cheering died down as the goblet turned scarlet once more and spat out another charred parchment.

"The champion for Beauxbatons," Began Dumbledore, "Is Fleur Delacour!" The girl who had scoffed at Dumbledore's welcoming speech the previous night was the one that stood up. She shook her silvery hair out and practically floated up the aisle, she had to have some level of Veela in her, it just wasn't natural.

"Oh, I guess they're _really_ disappointed." Alicia said uncertainly, I turned my head to where she was looking, noticing that the other students from Beauxbatons weren't taking their loss as well as the Durmstrang lot had. At least two people had dissolved into tears, it was kind of sad.

When the girl named Fleur had floated to where Krum had gone before, the hall fell back into tangible silence, Angelina's leg was shaking even more than before, it was time for the Hogwarts champion to be chosen.

The goblet turned red for the third and last time, a piece of parchment flew into the air, and was caught by Dumbledore, just like the others.

"The Hogwarts champion, will be Cedric Diggory." He spoke calmly, but the reaction was anything but. The whole Hufflepuff table was on there feet, stomping and clapping wildly for Cedric who looked a bit embarrassed by the whole reaction he got.

I smiled at Angelina, who just shrugged, "I know he'll do good." I could see that she wasn't too hurt by the fact she hadn't won, she had respect for Cedric.

Cedric walked up the aisles to the front of the hall and it took longer for the applause to die down than it had with the ther champions.

"Better luck next time Angie." Lee said, reaching over and patting her on the shoulder as talk resumed, we were all ready to go to bed, I'm sure the whole Hufflepuff house would be up until the next morning.

"Next time? What the hell are you talking about Lee? There is no next time." Angelina said, smacking Lee's hand away, her words sounded harsh, but there was a smile on her face.

Dumbledore returned to the center of the hall, and raised his hand, we all quieted so he could make some parting remarks before we all went up to the dorms.

But that didn't happen, instead,the Goblet turned red again, for a fourth time.

"What?" I said almost without meaning to, murmurs broke out around the hall. Even Dumbledore looked confused for a moment, but he hid it well, and caught the paper for the fourth time.

"Harry Potter." The hall was dead quiet, not a single person spoke. My gaze turned to Harry automatically, who was sitting a few seats down the table. Nobody clapped or applauded, but several people stood up, to look at Harry, who hadn't moved a muscle.

"Harry Potter!" Dumbledore broke the silence, my eyes snapped towards him, "Up here if you please." Harry got up unsurely, and started to walk the distance, it seemed to take forever. The longer he walked the louder the talking got. Until at last, he vanished into the back room, just like the other three, the second he disappeared the shouting broke out, and Dumbledore dismissed us without a final word.

 **111111111**

"So, this might be a stupid question-"

"If you start out a question like that I'm sure it is stupid Lee." Alicia quipped, after the feast had ended, and in quiet uproar, we were heading back to our dorms.

"Let the man speak." Fred inched his way through the crowds of people all trying to get to the same place at once.

"As I was saying -move it maggots!" A group of first years scattered before Lee.

"Come on Lee, just spit it out." I said, throwing a dirty look to a Ravenclaw who shoved past me to sprint up some more stairs to his own common room.

"It can't be a _Tri_ wizard Tournament anymore can it?" Lee finally expelled.

"I guess not…" Fred trailed off, "What's the same thing as tri, but for four."

"That was worded so eloquently Fred," I rolled my eyes "It's tetra."

"So the answer to your question is no, it shouldn't be called a Triwizard Tournament anymore, but a Tetrawizard Tournament." Fred said with certainty.

"Well I know why they won't be calling it that." Alicia said, holding open the common room door.

"Why not?" Lee asked over his shoulder.

I answered for her, "Cause it sounds stupid as hell that's why."

"Whatever, let's make this place ready for Harry when he comes up." Lee said, and opened one of the old trunks in the corner of the common room, whipping out a giant Gryffindor flag bigger than myself.

"Harry doesn't seem to be the type to enjoy all this." Angelina said, gesturing to the voracious decorating that Lee was doing.

"He'll love it." Lee said with confidence.

"I just wanna know how he put his name in." Fred said with an expression that was half annoyed, and half immensely impressed.

"And he didn't even grow a beard, we would've seen him in to get it removed." George affirmed.

When Harry finally arrived at the common room, we all burst into applause, I only clapped halfheartedly, I wasn't sure how Harry had gotten his name in, but all the Gryffindors were excited that we would have someone to represent us nonetheless.

Even after Harry went to bed we continued to stay in the common room, Lee had gotten a smaller gryffindor banner from somewhere and was trying to bewitch it to have Harry's face on it.

"I'm going upstairs you guys coming?" Angelina said around eleven o'clock, she looked tired, and I knew that not being Hogwarts champion had to be weighing on her, Alicia and I exchanged a discreet look and agreed to go up to bed with her.

"I mean, Cedric's a good guy, and I've got no idea how Harry even managed to get himself in but there he is, so I guess that's good representation but I'm just mad, you know?" It took about three seconds for Angelina to start talking, we weren't even up the stairs into our dorm room yet.

"I know Angie, it sucks." Alicia said.

"Yeah, it kinda does." Angelina shook her head, but a tired smile still managed to surface on her slightly forlorn face, so I knew it wasn't too bad.

 **111111111**

I woke up relatively early for it being a Sunday, and by the time I got to the great hall, I realized just how potentially bad the situation with the four champions was. It seemed no Hufflepuff would make eye contact, and all through the day, the mutterings of various people fell on my ears.

"I reckon he's just doing it for the attention." A Ravenclaw girl said from the table beside mine in the library.

"Doesn't he have enough fame?" Her friend answered, I just rolled my eyes.

The two Ravenclaws in the library wouldn't shut up, and when I left out of annoyance to sit in the great hall instead, just trying to get some homework done mind you, the whispers of the Hufflepuffs at the table behind me persisted as well.

"God, all of those Gryffindors just can't let Cedric have his moment, I heard Rachel swear she could hear them partying all night, and their common room is in a tower!" A fourth year said to his friend. I slammed my potions book shut and made solid eye contact as I started to walk by.

"Hey numbnuts, you have your entire lives to be assholes, how about you take today off?" I said, practically seething, usually Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs got on great, but I couldn't stand for them so obviously disrespecting my house right in front of me.

The boy with brown curly hair stood up, his face coloring just slightly from the insult.

"Why do you care so much," He said hotly, his friend looking at him warily, "You're friends with Angelina Johnson aren't you? I saw her enter, isn't Harry stealing her thunder being the Gryffindor champion?" He tried his best but he wasn't making any sense.

"We didn't need a champion from Gryffindor we already had a Hogwarts champion in Cedric, maybe you've forgotten." I sneered "But I am one hundred percent sure Harry didn't put his name in that stupid goblet!" My voice was rising at an unprecedented rate, and noticing the ancient runes teacher walking closer, I stalked off, leaving the two boys behind me, still at their table.

"You've gotta stop doing that" I muttered to myself under my breath, "Stop getting so angry you dumb idiot."

The days flew by, and as lessons started up again, all of us Gryffindors were subjected to basically all of the other houses hating us. Slytherin was a given, and that never bothered me, but the Hufflepuffs hatred towards us for supporting Harry was becoming ruthless, and never mind the Ravenclaws, they all had it in their heads that Harry only put his name in for more fame.

Things were so bad that in NEWT level classes, where students were normally required and encouraged to form inter-house relations, nobody could work with anybody from a different house in threat of duels breaking out.

I had seen Nick twice in the past month, it was November twenty-first, and there was a Hogsmeade visit for Hogwarts students, but Nick had heard about it somehow, and asked me to go with him. I had to tell Alicia and Angelina, who promptly freaked out.

"It's not the end of the world." I said on the chilly Saturday morning. It was almost December, and it was getting colder up here in northern Scotland every day, I was expecting the first snow soon enough.

At Alicia's insistence, I wore an outfit of her choosing, she knew what I liked, and respected that. I ended up with some black jeans, my old brown boots, and several layers around my top half, including a sweater of Alicia's and a Gryffindor scarf that belonged to Angelina.

By the time I met up with Nick outside of his ship, I felt as if I had been pulled through a hedge backwards. I felt unnecessarily nervous at going on what I assumed was some sort of date with him. I had spent so much time fussing about my appearance that I felt stupid, but Angelina had done my hair in a lovely french braid, and the longer I had spent walking down to the grounds the less nervous I got.

I saw him already waiting for me just near the bank of the black lake. He looked down shyly when I approached, but met my eyes, when I got to be right beside him, I smiled brightly at him in the early sunlight.

He smiled back, "Hello Veronica." He said in his usual heavily accented English.

"Hey Nick." That was all we said to each other before we started walking down the familiar route. It was pretty basic, just one road out of Hogwarts, so I didn't have to guide Nick too much.

"I come from Russia, and it is beautiful, but Hogwarts has certain charm to it." He said as we rounded a bend, I assumed he was talking about the vibrant colour that still lingered in some of the trees.

"Do trees not change colour in Russia?" I asked, a bit jokingly, he got it thankfully and laughed a bit.

"They do of course, but they do not stay for long time, snow takes much of vinter. Hogwarts is just having a varm feeling. Durmstrang is very cold." I thought I knew what he meant of that, the school focused heavily on the dark arts, maybe it was stricter than Hogwarts.

We had arrived at Hogsmeade by that point, and Nick seemed to find it very fascinating, asking questions that I didn't have an answer for.

"Come on, let's walk around the whole main street, there are some really wicked shops down here." I said, pointing to the other end of the street, where Honeydukes was, it was my favourite shop, as some of their sweets were my favourite foods, especially their signature chocolate.

"Vicked?" Nick asked me in shock, "Why is the store vicked?"

I laughed out loud, making Nick look at me with an even more confused expression on his face. "No, in this case, wicked means cool, or awesome, or good." The confusion disappeared from his face, and he laughed as well.

"Oh I see now, vicked means good." I nodded.

As we walked up the street, I took Nick into all of the shops along the way, he loved each one it seemed, even the quill store, where he was just floored by the elaborate peacock quills they had in the front window.

"Have you ever had butterbeer?" I asked him, as we came to a stop outside of The Three Broomsticks.

Nick shook his head, "No, is it like normal beer?" He asked as he held the door open for me to walk into the warm pub.

"No, not really, it's much sweeter, we'll get some, and then we can go down to the candy shop, Honeydukes, it's my favourite."

"I do like candy." I grinned at his seeming innocence. Walking up to the counter, I ordered two Butterbeers from the guy working there. After I had paid, we were leaving when I saw Fred, George, and Lee sitting in a booth by the far wall, with some papers spread out on the table. Only George caught my eye though, and while I smiled at him, I saw his eyes narrow the slightest bit and flit between me and Nick, I knew that later I was never going to hear the end of this.

"This is good." As we left The Three Broomsticks Nick tried the drink for the first time, and a childlike wonder appeared on his face when he tasted it.

"I know right?" We walked down the street and all through Honeydukes, where I bought myself some chocolate, he bought himself some of the finer delicacies, mainly Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, we were having fun guessing the flavours, and seeing who could spit them out farther, I had a feeling he let me win, I couldn't spit that far anyway.

Nick was nice, but I couldn't help feeling that it was the only thing he had going for him, he agreed with everything I said, he was funny but not that much. He was just a bit wooden. I enjoyed my day, I really did, but after I said goodbye with a hug, I just felt unaccomplished.

I walked back up the stairs slowly, sure, Nick was nice, but Nick was no Fred Weasley. I sighed as I realized that this stupid crush was far from over running it's course.

Not to mention I forgot to ever write Sirius back. I knew I could be forgetful sometimes but this was taking it a bit too far, I unwound my scarf from around my neck and resolved to pay more attention to the important things in my life, mainly my grades to get into the academy, and Sirius, it wasn't fair to him, or myself either.


	24. Jealousy

**Chapter 24: Jealousy**

Tuesday November twenty-fourth dawned cold and bright, with a bitter wind whipping through the grounds. There were only half classes on today, for after lunch the first task was happening.

"Hey Vern." Fred poked me in Transfiguration, usually we couldn't talk at all, but McGonagall was so distracted with presumably the first task that she let us practically do nothing the whole lesson.

"What." I was practicing transfiguring rocks into animals and back again. Cedric Diggory was in this class, and he looked positively queasy, probably McGonagall felt some shred of pity for him, and didn't take today's lesson too seriously, he was focused on turning his rock into increasingly larger animals.

"I gotta tell you something after class." He said cryptically, I had one more class after this before lunch, when we would go down to the Great Hall before heading to the grounds for whatever the first task was.

"So?" I asked, not looking up, concentrating very hard, I attempted the spell non-verbally on my rock, sadly, only a medium sized bearded dragon was produced, I had been trying for a large iguana.

"So what?" Fred retorted.

I gave him a look as I turned the lizard back into a rock, that process was much easier. "Why can't you just tell me now."

He gave an annoyed glance around the classroom, as if to make sure nobody was listening, then he leaned in, "It's about the first task."

"Alright, my next class is in the greenhouses, follow me there after this." Fred had piqued my interest, and now I was curious.

After class had ended, Fred and I walked to just around the corner from one of the side doors leading out of the west wing, which was the fastest way to get to the greenhouses.

"George is gonna be pissed if I'm late." I said, stopping right beside the doors.

"I thought you always worked with Angie in that class."

"Nah, Lee always partners with her before I can, she's his idol or something." I shrugged.

Fred looked perplexed. "Didn't she hit him with a telescope in your astronomy class last Wednesday?"

"Yep, it's a one way street with those two. So what's this about the first task?" I asked, Fred did the thing where he checked behind him again.

"It's dragons. Charlie, my brother-"

"I assumed."

" _Anyway_ , Charlie's here for the task and it has something to do with the contestants and a dragon, he owled me, George, and Ron, we saw them a few days ago." Fred finished.

"That sounds really, really dangerous, cool." I said, my eyes wide, scared for the contestants more than anything else.

While I was scared though, Fred's face lit up in a wicked grin, "Cool is right, the things are massive, anyways I should let you get to class, save me a spot beside you at the first task."

"Save you a spot? Where are you going to be?" I asked, but he was already walking away, and just waved over his shoulder. All I could do was sigh.

 **111111111**

"So Vern." I looked at George with trepidation.

"So George."

"It seems you've been avoiding me." Truth be told, I didn't want to tell George about my half date with Nick, because I knew he'd tell Fred, and I didn't want Fred knowing I wasn't completely open and single. It wasn't very fair to Nick, but I couldn't see anything much developing between us anyways.

"Look, I have to feed this tentacula before we leave for lunch, can you hold on?"

George rolled his eyes, "Does it have any seeds?"

"What?"

"The tentacula, give me it's seeds." I knew that this had something to do with their joke shop, so not putting up much of a fight, I pulled back on my dragonhide gloves, and seized the two seeds from the center of the plant.

"Thanks," George said, as I dropped the rattling seeds into his hand. "So feed it and let's go."

Lee and Angelina's bickering followed us as we walked back up to the castle.

"His name's Nick." I broke the silence, and I saw a triumphant smile flash across George's face before vanishing almost instantly. "He came here from Durmstrang, we met a few weeks ago, he's nice."

I wasn't sure why I was telling George any of this, he was one of the least trustworthy people I knew, apart from obvious criminals of course. But, here I was, and all Alicia and Angelina could talk about was how he was so hot and that I should date him, and sure, he was hot, but plenty of other people are as well, it just doesn't cut the whole cake.

"Oooohh, Vern has a boyfriend!" He teased in a sing-song voice.

"Are you sixteen or six," I deadpanned, George snorted and gave me a incredulous look, "No really, tell me, I wanna know. I can't tell, can you blame me?"

"I can blame whoever I want, and you're next on my list Veronica."

"Whatever. So where is Fred going before the first task that I have to save him a seat?" We finally entered the great hall, the warmth of the nearby fires enveloping me.

"Beats me," He looked at me with a curious expression.

"What?" I asked, "Your face is weird, why is your face weird." I said about the expression.

"No reason, he's probably just making bets or something."

"Did you two get overconfident after your spectacular luck at the World Cup?" I asked, sitting down, and helping myself to some grilled cheese.

"Sure, something like that." I looked at George sharpley, but his usually readable expression gave no clues as he just helped himself to food, and started up a conversation with Lee.

 **111111111**

"Fuck, they're gonna have to get the eggs or something aren't they." A Slytherin seventh year exclaimed from behind me as I was taking my seat. I was sat beside Alicia, who was beside Lee, George, and Angelina. I set my book bag down on the bench beside me, to save Fred his seat.

The guy was right though, we were looking through some sort of rippling barrier that seemed to me made of magic, it made the pit look a bit distorted, but the big details were still there. Namely the huge spiky rocks, and what looked like a nest, it only took a little bit of time before two guys that had the same build as Charlie were carrying what looked like eggs out into the pit.

The eggs were silvery blue, and seemed to swim. Ludo Bagman, who was commentating the events, was the man who walked out and placed a large golden egg right on top of the real dragon ones. Obviously that was the egg to get.

"Sorry, excuse me, yeah I know I'm late Lee." Fred's familiar voice was tinged with annoyance as he pushed through to where I was, I moved my bag so he could sit down. "Did I miss anything?"

"They just brought the first dragons eggs out, I think it's the one that starts with an 'S'" I said, pointing to the eggs.

"Swedish Short-Snout." Fred recited.

"Do you know your dragons or something?" I asked, giving him an impressed look.

"I bet you two galleons I can name each dragon that's going to come out here by their eggs." He bet, holding his hand out.

I checked my bag, and found two galleons at the bottom, "Deal."

"Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. This is your first chance to see our brave champions in action. This task is simple in explanation but much harder in execution. Each champion will have to get past a nesting mother dragon, to take the golden egg resting on top of her real ones." Ludo Bagman started.

"Wands are allowed, and our dragon keepers are on hand if things get too terrible." I noticed the dragon keepers around the perimeter of the enclosure, wands at the ready, a flash of bright red hair showed me where Charlie was. Though I doubt he could see us through the blurred shield.

"Champions are allowed to use any spell they see fit, except for illegal ones of course," Bagman chuckled, even though nobody else did. "Our first champion is Cedric Diggory, and he will be facing off with the Swedish Short-Snout!"

"Haha, I was right." Fred gloated as we clapped, there were six doors to the enclosure, four held the dragons behind them, one was a small man door that various dragon keepers kept flitting in and out of, and the last was to a large white tent, presumably with the champions, since the Headmasters had already taken their seat at the judges panel.

One of the doors began to open suddenly, and with a roar and a plume of blue-white fire, a massive dragon flew out. I gasped and leaned back, for I had never seen a dragon before.

"The dragons that our champions are trying to get past are nesting mothers, so, this makes them much more protective of their eggs." Bagman continued as the dragon continued to growl and hunch protectively over her eggs that matched the silvery sheen of her scales.

I wondered if all dragons were this beautiful, she was terrifying, but in a beautiful sort of way, you could see the power, and it took my breath away.

"Here is our first Hogwarts champion, Cedric Diggory!" Cedric stepped out of the white tent, the dragon swung her massive head to him, and snorted a small bout of the blue fire, he seemed to want to stumble back but didn't, instead walking forwards.

The dragon took a step forward and the crowd instinctively gasped. Cedric pointed his wand at a large rock, and with only a slight tremble, the rock morphed into a big labrador retriever.

"Not a dog! If I have to see a dog get eaten that's not right." I exclaimed as the dog barked and ran around in circles.

"It's not real, it's just a rock that he put a spell on." Fred reminded me.

The dog ran to the left, and the Short-Snout quietly slithered after it, Cedric took the opportunity and slowly started moving towards her tail end. As she went further and further away, he moved in closer and closer.

But he was too slow, just as Cedric was crouching and reaching for the egg, the dragon turned and lunged quicker than a flash, Cedric jumped backwards, but we heard a yelp as the dragon shot a plume of her blue fire towards him, he must have gotten burned.

When he reemerged from the rocks we went wild. Sure he was burned pretty badly on his face, but in his arms was the giant golden egg.

The Swedish Short-Snout had her doors opened again, and the dragon keepers floated her eggs over to her enclosure, and she followed happily, giving little snorts of fire as she went.

The next eggs that were taken out were a mossy green colour, mottled with some brown spots and streaks.

"Welsh Green." Fred said instantly.

"I'm certain that they are using the most basic of dragon breeds here." I shook my head but Fred just grinned.

The judges were scoring Cedric and we all turned and looked, the judges shot numbers out of ten into the air with their wands, and I quickly added them up.

"Thirty eight! That's not bad!" I said over the loud clapping and cheering of all the Hogwarts students.

"Our next champion will be Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons, she will be attempting to divert the Welsh Green." Bagman announced to a quieter applause then Cedric got.

"Two for four, lets see how this goes." Fred said, smirking in my general direction.

The Welsh Green flew out, she was smaller than the previous dragon, but seemingly quicker, as her head never stopped lashing from side to side as she checked out the area while circling her eggs.

Fleur came out, her face impassive, and her hair tied up instead of in it's usual long silvery sheet. She thought for only moments, before taking off at a brisk walk, the dragon had her eyes on Fleur, but she didn't stop until she was just out of reach of the flames.

She raised her wand, and in a clear voice, said something I couldn't make out, but the dragon stopped her pacing all of a sudden, the crowd 'oohed' and 'ahhed' and Fleur seemed to have put the dragon into some sort of trance, her spell must have been exceptionally strong, for dragonhide was famously spell repellant. She was so close to the egg, but then the dragon snored, and a jet of fire left its nose, catching her skirt on fire, she didn't make any noise though, and just put it out with her wand.

Fleurs time was longer than Cedric's, but she wasn't injured as she finally grabbed the eggs and ran out of the enclosure, all in all, she was awarded thirty nine points, which put her in current first place.

"She did pretty good." I mused, clapping as Fleur left the ring.

"A bit too slow for my liking." Alicia piped in from my left.

The dragon was escorted out just like the one before, and a new set of eggs was brought in.

"Chinese fireball." I sighed.

"I'm beginning to hate this bet more and more."

The eggs were black with red veiny lines that looked like cracks running up them, they looked like they were about to explode, maybe they did, that would be interesting.

"Our second last champion is Viktor Krum from Durmstrang!" Krum slouched into the enclosure after the spiky and formidable Chinese Fireball had slithered in, it seemed to act more like a giant snake then a dragon.

Krum was very quick, and almost immediately shot aspell to it's eye, the dragon let out a horrible shriek, and started stomping around, in clear distress.

"Oh no!" I yelled out as she got close to her eggs, obviously unable to see them, the whole crowd gasped as with mighty cracks, she stepped on about half of her own eggs. I saw the dragon keepers look horrified, and they immediately reversed the spell as Krum got his egg and left the enclosure.

"He just murdered a bunch of little baby dragons!" Alicia shouted from beside me.

"That's not right." Lee agreed with her, shaking his head.

But Viktor Krum still got forty points, probably for his speed, since he was only in the ring for a total of ten minutes.

The next eggs that were brought out looked completely different, they were dark grey, and covered in spikes that looked like they could impale you.

"That's a Hungarian Horntail, oh no." Fred said simply.

"Why oh no?" My tone rose up at the end, unsure of why this dragon was worse, they were all violent were they not?

"Horntails are known for being one of the most violent dragon breeds, they're fast, big and can shoot really hot fire for a really long distance." Fred shot off the facts.

"So basically you're saying that Harry's fucked."

"Yeah that's what I'm saying."

But Harry was not royally screwed over, instead he did the fastest of anybody, using an accio charm that would have given me a run for my money, Harry summoned his ultra fast Firebolt, presumably all the way from the castle, down to the enclosure. In just over five minutes, Harry had gotten the golden egg, the Horntail was furious, her lethally spiked tail was leaving gashes in rock, and several other rocks were red with heat from where she had breathed fire in frustration.

Harry earned forty points as well, making him tied for first, he had gotten a nasty gash on his shoulder, but it was minor compared to Cedric's.

It wasn't until later, when we were walking back up to the castle in a great crowd, that I saw Nick again. I was thinking of the next letter I was going to send to Sirius, and composing it in my head, when Nick came pushing through the crowd up from behind me.

"Veronica!" He pronounced every syllable in my name very precisely, and Fred gave him and then me, a confused look, George had had no time to tell Fred about Nick so I knew he was still in the dark.

"Hey Nick, whats up."

"I just vanted to know if you vere doing something tonight, after the feast." He said, a hopeful smile on his face, I found myself dreading going on another outing with him, but shocked at my own personal rudeness, I pushed it down, and instead came up with a quick white lie, it wasn't entirely false.

"No, sorry, were celebrating Harry getting first place tonight in our common room."

"Oh, alright then, I'll see you around." He looked so forlorn that I felt bad, but as he was walking away, Fred tapped my shoulder.

"Nick? Who the hell is Nick?" He demanded, quite intensely for Fred.

"He's a student from Durmstrang that I met a few weeks ago, he's nice, and _yes_ ," I said, when Fred opened his mouth about to interject, "We've been on a date, I thought you saw us actually."

"No, I didn't" He said, turning his chin up, and it made me mad.

"Why are you acting like that? Did I need your permission to go out on a date?" I demanded in return, and Fred's blue eyes flashed in anger.

"When did I say anything remotely like that?" He spat.

I scoffed, "Oh sorry, maybe it was your tone that implied it, don't worry though _dad_ ," I sourley mocked "I'll make sure to check with you next time I go on a date."

"I never said anything! And what does the word dad taste like coming out of your mouth, I bet you've never said it before." Fred faltered in his last words, maybe he had said it in anger, but the damage was done.

I wanted to scream at him, yell that I did have a Dad, that he loved me, but all I could do was stop and stare, and the remark still stung like acid. "That has nothing to do with this, and you know it!" I hissed through the lump in my throat, hot tears pricked at the back of my eyes, but I wouldn't let him see me cry.

Fred had never been that mean before, I saw the regret in his eyes as I turned away, but it was framed by jealousy, and I knew he hadn't truly regretted what he'd said just yet, and so I walked away, furiously allowing the first tears to fall.


	25. Drama's Not My Style

**Chapter 25: Drama's Not My Style**

I was so mad at Fred that I didn't even go to the party that him and George were hosting. Instead I just stayed in my dorm, catching up on homework. But it wasn't easy, as my quill kept poking through the parchment, for I was writing so hard, and while I knew Angelina and Alicia meant well, them checking up on me every half an hour was not helping my mood.

I finally just turned off the light and layed in bed, ignoring their knocks until they went away.

December tenth brought the first snow to the castle. We woke up early one morning, and outside the window the grounds were covered in a thin layer of white. Before that, all the weather had done was pelt us with harsh sleet and high winds.

In Transfiguration, I still sat with Fred, as there were no other open seats, and we also had to work in pairs often, making sitting on my own pointless. I didn't talk much to him though, it had been about three weeks since the first task. But, as Fred had said himself a few years ago, I was famously able to hold a grudge.

There was a prefect meeting scheduled for tonight, and it was all I was thinking about through the class, mainly to keep myself distracted. This year, I had actually done some of my nighttime patrols, so I was invited to this meeting. But McGonagall stood up at the front of the class just a few minutes before the bell was due to ring. It was my last class of the day, and several other peoples as well, making the noise level through the roof.

"The Yule ball is approaching, and as a steady tradition of the Triwizard Tournament, I expect all of you to be there. This ball is open to fourth years and above, but you may invite a younger student if you wish." She looked at us sternly, obviously disapproving of one of us inviting somebody more than two years our junior.

"The ball starts at eight o'clock on Christmas day. You are senior students, and I expect you to represent our school with the utmost dignity. Dismissed." We got up with a general scraping, I talked to Angelina and Alicia on the way out, they were chattering all about what guys they were going to ask, or get to ask them.

"You should go with Nick." Alicia said, an excited smile on her face.

"Do you think we'll be allowed to order in dresses from Diagon Alley?" Angelina said, clasping her hands in front of her in excitement, an unusual display of emotion for her.

"I don't think I'll go with Nick, he's not too exciting." They both nodded in agreement, I had told them how I felt, and being good friends, they completely understood my lack of attraction. Even though Nick still came into the castle and sat with me in the library while I did my homework. I tried to deter him as much as possible, usually I just had to go up to the common room.

As the weeks passed by to the end of term, it became apparent that nobody was leaving for Christmas break except the younger years. Though a few were holding out and waiting to see if they would get asked to the Ball by a student from an older year.

"Hey, Vern!" Fred's voice shocked me, gradually we had been talking more, but I wasn't willing to just throw my reservations away, he had never apologized for what he said.

I was sitting in the common room, with Angelina and Alicia, Fred and George were over in the corner talking to Harry Ron and Hermione.

"What?" I called back, looking up from my paper.

"Do you want to go to the ball with me?" My lungs stopped in that exact instant, Angelina and Alicia looked at each other, and at me in quick succession.

"No." The word left my mouth almost automatically, Fred just smiled and turned back to Ron and Harry. I felt my own rejection as if he had rejected me. I just rejected going to the ball with the guy I liked. But I steeled myself, it wasn't my fault that Fred had been a dick, and that was why I said no.

"See, it's that easy, you just gotta ask." I faintly heard him say.

"You got rejected." Ron said incredulously, "I don't wanna get rejected!"

"I handled it well though, you try George." Fred said, nudging George with his elbow, George shrugged and instead called out a different name.

"Oi Angie!" She had been talking with Alicia in low tones, and kept nudging me, but she looked up when George called her name.

"What do _you_ want?" She called back.

He grinned in a very George way, "Do you wanna go to the ball with me?" Angelina couldn't help laughing.

But to my surprise, she answered differently than I expected her to, "Yeah, all right then." She turned back to us with a small smile on her face, the twins left and Angelina watched them go.

"Um, are you two going to say anything?!" Alicia sputtered.

"I'm not the one who just got a date to the ball." I said, grinning and looking at Angelina, who looked a bit shell shocked.

"You got asked though, by Fred Weasley! Why didn't you say yes?" Alicia demanded.

"He still hasn't apologized." I muttered, I knew it sounded petty, but I couldn't stand how he thought I would just say yes about going to the ball with him when he still couldn't apologize for calling me fatherless.

"Oh, well yeah that does put a damper on things." Angelina said, frowning a bit.

"Oh no, Angie I'm happy that George asked you, I know you two will have so much fun." I said, and I really meant it, it was hard not to have fun with the twins.

We went up to our dormitory in no time, and plenty of gossiping happened that night. I finally told Angelina and Alicia that I wanted to go out with Fred, and Angelina told us that she wasn't so sure about George, but that she thought he was cute back in fourth year, so that was something.

Alicia was afraid Lee was going to ask her out, which I said was a stupid fear, he had probably already asked out all of the seventh year girls in the school, to varying results.

The school had gone into overdrive with Christmas decorating, and with only a week left to the ball as the term wrapped up, I was increasingly worried about if I was going to have a date or not.

A surprising amount of people had asked me to go to the ball with them. About five in total, Nick had asked me but for the last time I shut him down, A seventh year Hufflepuff, one third year who looked absolutely terrified and ran away when I looked at him funny, a Ravenclaw fifth year, and some guy from Gryffindor who was a year younger than me, named Cormac McLaggan. He was definitely the worst of the bunch, and wouldn't leave me alone until I threatened him.

Alicia had been asked by Cassius Warrington, a Slytherin in our year who was on the quidditch team, Alicia had it firmly cemented in her brain that because they hated each other so much, it was undeniable attraction.

"Can you imagine the angry sex?" Alicia said, soon after they agreed to go together.

"ALICIA!" Obviously Angelina and I weren't so sure.

 **111111111**

"Vern, can I have a word?"

"If you're going to ask me to the ball again, no." I said to Fred, who had stopped me on my way down to lunch, we had just come out of transfiguration, and my grudge was still going strong.

"No, actually I wanted to say that I'm sorry." The disbelief flashed across my face before I could stop it, I turned my body fully to him. Fred saying sorry was rare, I was expecting it to be much longer before I got anything from him.

"Not good enough." I said quietly, finding my words, "Not _near_ good enough."

"I just-" Fred stammered, looking shocked, "I just wanted to say-"

"It's been almost a month, since you insulted my lack of parents. 'I'm sorry'" I practically spat, holding my hands up in the air, "Doesn't cut it. You had a whole fucking month to say that you were sorry, but the time afterwards doesn't matter, it's that you didn't say it right then."

My fuse that lit my temper seemed to get shorter and shorter every day, I would've tried to control myself any other time, but in the moment I just couldn't be bothered.

"You walked away." Fred's expression was stony, but mine was harder, and I drew myself up and stared him right in the eyes.

"There was at least thirty seconds in between those two things happening, you can say 'I'm sorry', about twenty times in thirty seconds. Also, even better, you could have jazzed up your apology," I sneered, getting carried away despite of myself, "Oh Vern, that was really insensitive, I'm sorry I ever said it, I didn't really mean it." I played out, "That took me about eight seconds, which means you could have stated that almost four times. What's your excuse."

Fred just stared at me, looking sad, and sort of sheepish, "I don't have one."

I looked at him, and I knew he was sorry. I had known Fred for so long that one look was all it took, and I knew what I was saying next. "I'll go to the ball with you."

A wide smile broke out onto his face, and while I didn't smile, it felt nice to be on good terms with him again, and I was just holding out for an apology, and for him to know that what he said was wrong, that's all I wanted, and if Fred wanted to go to the ball with me, who was I to say no?

Forgive but not forget. Maybe I was too forgiving with certain people, but everybody has their flaws.

 **111111111**

It was December twenty-second, four days after I agreed to go to the Yule Ball with Fred. Angelina, Alicia and I had placed our dress orders, and they were arriving tomorrow. I was in full Christmas spirits. McGonagall must have been feeling it as well, because she was extra nice, and was allowing a few students from Gryffindor to go down to Hogsmeade today. Mainly Fred and I were going, on sort of a date, though neither of us were calling it that.

The castle was so beautifully decorated this year that I just took walks sometimes to marvel at the craftsmanship. I had always liked pretty things, and got lost in my imagination often while looking at them. The Christmas trees were covered to the skies, and wreaths and tinsel were hung throughout the hallways, along with boughs of holly. Mistletoe grew naturally on the side of the castle, up from it's host trees below, and the teachers let it twine through windows and down walls, it gave some green to the usual stone.

I was going to buy some Christmas presents for my friends while I was in Hogsmeade. I was trying to make the money I had brought from summer last for as long as I could. I didn't want to have to send a letter to Gringotts asking for more money from my vault, they took a famously long time to get back to you.

After reconciling with Fred, I found my mood improving significantly. He was just a light to me, and a whole month avoiding him after six years of being friends was a lot.

I got Angelina a broom shaped quill that could fly when it wasn't in use, and for Alicia, I got her a package of do it yourself tea from that ugly Madame Puddifoot shop. She loved the tea there so I grinned and beared it when I had to go in and request their 'Lovey Dovey Tea Special' addressed to Alicia Spinnet. I'm fairly certain the lady who wrote it actually thought I was dating this Alicia, and kept giving Fred, who was standing beside me, pitying looks, he was just trying not to laugh.

"That place is horrendous." He chortled as we left the shop. I took a deep breath of the cold, not overwhelmingly scented air as we were walking down the street.

"I smells like the Divination classroom and I don't like it one bit." The mild headache I was getting from waiting for the exceptionally slow service they had was ebbing away.

"Let's never go back there, agreed?" Fred didn't seem to realize what he was saying, and maybe he hadn't meant it how I thought he implied it, but I was a person who looked way too far into anything and everything.

Fred and George had asked for some rather odd things for Christmas, namely parts of plants from the more dangerous greenhouses. As a prefect, I was possibly abusing my powers by going in there and taking them, but where else was I going to get more tentacula seeds, and the juice from the snargaluff pods.

I never got anything for Lee, he had forgot it was my birthday for the whole month of August a few years ago, so I forgot to get him a Christmas gift, ever since then we never gave each other anything for Christmas or birthday's, our words were enough.

All in all, it was a wonderful day, and that night, Fred and George had started more work on their Canary Creams. Before long the Gryffindor common room was going to have people bursting into feathers at least twice a day, as they were selling them so fast, it was exhausting. While I knew it was safe, I worried what other things they were going to make.

It was the next day, and Alicia, Angelina and I woke up to loud tapping coming from who knows where.

"If that's Fred or George I am going to skin them alive." I heard Angelina growl as she hauled herself out of bed.

"Don't do that Angie, it's not worth it, and anyways, who'll be your date to the ball if George is dead-" I mumbled, turning over.

"Oh my god they're here!" Angelina shrieked, cutting me off, my eyes snapped open, and within a few seconds both me and Alicia were out of bed.

"What's here?" Alicia snapped, wrapping a blanket around her shoulders.

"The dresses!" At Angelina's words I practically ran over to the window beside Angelina's bed, where the three giant owls were flying, waiting to come in.

Angelina unlocked the window and threw it open, and all the owls came into the room. I fished out some owl treats from Alicia's trunk, as she was the only one of us that owned an owl, and started giving them to the birds as Angelina and Alicia worked on getting the packages free.

The owls left shortly after getting their treats and we all ripped into the unlabeled packages, to find which dress belonged to each of us. Wizard dress robes were similar to muggle dresses, but were always floor length, and had just a bit more material involved.

I had ordered a dark red one, that faded to black at the bottom, Angelina had it and when she gave it to me I held it up.

"It's so pretty!" I practically yelled as I twirled the material around. Angelina had found hers by this point, it was a purple that would be stunning with her dark brown eyes. Alicias was a perfect Slytherin green, she drew an endless amount of teasing at the time, but when she held it up to herself I realized how much the colour suited her.

"Should we try them on?" Angelina spoke in a hushed tone, the clock said it was only eight in the morning, so with little hesitation, we all threw on the robes as fast as possible.

I had never dressed up this fancy for anything before, and the shoes that came with the dress matched it perfectly. I felt beautiful, and as we twirled and fake danced with each other, the soft material swishing around our heels, my anticipation for the dance just kept growing.

 **1111111111**

"Angie told George that you guys got your dresses for the ball this morning." Fred started from beside me on the couch. We were practically alone in the common room, everybody else was at various points around the castle. George was with Lee, doing something that Fred wouldn't tell me about, which I didn't find too suspicious because I knew it probably didn't concern me. Alicia was spending every second she could with Warrington, she still insisted that they hated each other, but doing a prefect patrol a few nights ago I had caught them violently making out in the dungeons.

I had declared that to be firmly not my problem, and continued on as if I hadn't seen them.

"Yeah we did." I finally answered Fred after a few seconds pause. I was doing my Christmas break homework, and Fred was beside me actually doing something that looked vaguely complicated. I knew it was a recipe for one of his new inventions, probably the fever fudge thing I heard him talking about a few days ago, but it looked like nothing I had ever seen him do, so I wasn't going to break his concentration too much.

"What colour is yours, 'cause I have this ugly colour of dress robes- not sure what Mum was thinking, but they're really dark red and I would do anything to charm them a different colour, I already transfigured them to look better-" I cut Fred's rambling off.

"Actually they'll work perfectly." I said, smiling brightly at him, he sighed deeply.

"At least we'll match I guess."


	26. Yule Time

**Chapter 26: Yule Time**

This years Christmas was a white one. As we woke up in the early morning, our room was already bright with sun reflecting off the snow.

I woke up and immediately started on the small pile of presents at the end of my bed. Fred and George had gotten me a joint gift of new Gryffindor mitts, along with a new scarf and hat. My set were so old they didn't fit very well anymore, but these would do perfectly.

By the time I had started opening my presents Alicia and Angelina had woken up as well, and were opening the pile of presents they got. From Angelina I got a new shirt and a nice necklace. Alicia had gotten me two pairs of new jeans, which were just in time, as my current pairs were only slightly falling apart, I didn't mind much though.

Mrs Weasley had knitted me the usual jumper inscribed with a V. Usually it was a different colour every year, because Mrs Weasley said I looked good in every colour, and this year it was a royal blue.

The present I hadn't expected though, was at the very bottom, a letter from Sirius. Of course it said it was from Snuff, but I knew who that was. I ripped it open gleefully, my eyes scanning the scribbled words.

 _Vern,_

 _Hope you have a great christmas, I'd like to tell you that Guava has been a great companion, but after it got cold, she left me to probably go back to her warmer temperatures. I offered to knit something for her but I'm sure it would have looked terrible._

I grinned at that, stifling a laugh with my hand.

 _I figured I would get you an owl for christmas, as you probably don't have one, and Guava is very distinctive when she flies, have a merry christmas,_

 _Snuff_

I was shocked that Sirius got me an owl for christmas, I knew that they could be expensive. While I was sad that Guava had left to her warmer temperatures I knew she would be back, she probably liked annoying me too much to stay away forever.

I wasn't giving Sirius anything for Christmas, I didn't know him very well at all, and it wasn't like he could make use of a normal gift while he was on the run.

I walked slowly downstairs to the Owlery, talking to any of my friends I happened to see on the way. I was thrilled about the ball tonight, and a little nervous, but excited nonetheless. When I got to the Owlery, a giant black bird greeted me by flying down to a perch near me and chirping loudly. I laughed at the irony of the bird being black, it definitely fit the family resemblance of other dark furred animals.

"I wonder if you have a name." I said to the owl, as I approached him and gently pet his head. I noticed a scroll around it's leg, picking it up I read some more script in Sirius's now familiar handwriting.

 _He doesn't have a name, but he's pretty young, so don't get mad at him or anything._

I smiled, but felt internal dread, I was going to have to name this owl, and I was terrible at names, I would figure it out eventually. The bird gently hooted, and after I was finished I gave him a final pet on the head, with an owl treat from Alicia. He quietly flew back up to the rafters, watching me as I left.

The afternoon brought a huge snowball fight on the front lawns of the school, originally it was the three schools against each other, but Beauxbatons drew out, and eventually so did the students from Durmstrang. After that it was an inter-house snowball fight, but it quickly became every man for himself, and before long I was chucking snowballs at each and every one of my friends.

Most of the girls were leaving before the guys, Alicia, Angelina, and I all left at around half after four, to go upstairs and get ready for the ball.

I had Alicia do my hair in big curls, and Angelina did my makeup, with lipstick to match my dark red dress robes. When we finally had pulled the whole look together, we looked around at each other in awe.

"I don't think we've ever looked this nice." Angelina said, smiling and twirling in her beautiful purple robes, the colour setting off the radiance of her rich, dark skin. Alicia looked stunning in green, and her long black hair cascaded over her shoulders in gentle waves.

"I don't think I'll ever look this good again." I said, looking at myself in the mirror. I hardly recognized the woman who stared back. She looked tall and beautiful, framed in red, that matched her lipstick, and had dark hair that flew back over her shoulders in a way of it's own, curly and wild. Her high cheekbones were slices down the side of her face, and there was a single gold and red ring on her finger, that matched the colour of a necklace she wore.

She wasn't me, but I loved her.

We passed Hermione on the way down, nobody had any idea who she was going with, but she looked lovely all done up in periwinkle blue.

I met Fred in the common room, he wore robes of darkish maroon or red, I couldn't tell what colour they were exactly, but they were _not_ terrible, as he had said almost everyday since he initially told me he hated them.

"Fred, the robes do not look terrible, they look nice!" I exclaimed as I approached him, he was staring at me in an odd way, and I fought back a blush that would rival the colour of my robes.

"You were right though, they do match." He said, but it seemed forced, I furrowed my brow at him but he was looking ahead.

We walked down to the entrance hall together, Angelina and George behind us, and Alicia practically running in front of us, down the stairs until she met up with Warrington, it seemed sweet until they started making out again.

"Alicia come on." I said as we walked into the hall, filled with people talking to one another while waiting for the doors to the Great Hall to open.

"Oh just let them, it's young love." Fred said dramatically, holding a hand to his heart.

"You hate him, don't lie." I said, smiling as we entered the main area of the Entrance Hall.

"I do hate him, but him and Alicia must like each other to some degree." He said as if it pained him to do so.

Fred's weirdness disappeared as we got more comfortable while waiting for the great hall to open. Everybody looked so nice, and eventually the champions started arriving.

Fleur Delacour looked stunning as usual, with robes of silvery grey, she was going with the Ravenclaw quidditch captain, Roger Davies, who looked very proud of himself. The front doors opened, and the Durmstrang students came in behind Karkaroff. Viktor Krum leaded the group, and when I looked at who he was coming with, I started hitting Fred's arm.

"What do you want?" He whisper-shouted, leaning down to hear me better.

"That's Hermione! That's Hermione with Viktor Krum!." I said subtly indicating where they were standing. Hermione looked just like she had on the stairwell, her usual bushy hair had been pulled back into a topknot, and she sparkled in the blue colour of the robes, the effect was much better in the bright lights of the entrance hall rather than the dimly lit stairwell.

Professor McGonagall had tartan robes that were alright at best, they suited her at least, and she opened the doors that lead into the Great Hall.

"Oh wow…" I trailed off as Fred and I walked into the hall, arm in arm. I wasn't sure when we linked arms, but it had happened, and neither of us were letting go. The walls were covered in sparkling silver frost, that twined up the walls to the starry ceiling, it was a clear night outside, but the enchanted ceiling was definitely enhancing its beauty. The Christmas trees sparkled in the candlelight, and we went to one of the many decorated tables and sat down.

At our table we had Me, Fred, Angelina, George, Alicia, Warrington, (Alicia made us all promise to be nice) Lee, his date, who was a Hufflepuff seventh year, and a few Beauxbatons girls who couldn't get a spot with the rest of them. They kept sending longing looks over to the table where most of the rest of the students from their school sat.

We ate dinner through an odd sort of menu, and listened to the girls from Beauxbatons talk about how their castle was so much better decorated than this. Angelina looked ready to start throwing punches.

"Zis 'all is nothing compared to Beauxbatons, ze decorations are offensive zey are so bad." The girl with long dark hair said, folding her arms, her friend sniffed and nodded sharply, and they both turned away at the same time.

"Nevermind inter-house relationships, inter-school ones are never going to happen." I heard Warrington say to Alicia, who looked a bit irritated as well by the girls so obviously insulting our school.

After we had finished eating, Dumbledore stood, and said we should all do the same. I took one last sip of my drink and walked with Fred over to the perimeter of the hall, the rest of the students filed here as well. With a wave of his wand, he cleared all the tables to the edges of the hall where we standing, and the rest to a section behind the stage, and conjured some instruments to sit on it.

The doors opened and a band I recognized as the Weird Sisters trooped into the hall and up onto the stage, with some pretty heavy applause.

"Hell yeah." Fred said as they all picked up their instruments and struck up a slow tune. The four champions and their partners were the first to dance. Harry and Parvati Patil looked awkward at best, while the other three seemed to be more acquainted. Fleur DeLacour was as graceful as ever, but her partner Roger Davies was having trouble, probably because he never took his eyes off of her long enough to see where to place his feet.

The first people to join the champions was Professor Dumbledore and Madame Maxime. I always thought Dumbledore was very tall, but compared to her he was a dwarf. One by one, couples went to the dance floor.

I looked up at Fred, the exact second he looked at me."Let's dance." I said simply, and practically led him to the center of the floor. He put his hand around my waist, and mine on his shoulder, our other hands were gripped together, and we started to dance.

It wasn't completely awkward, but there was something there, something that made me want to close the gap between us, and dance closer, but I repressed it. The song had ended before I knew it, and Fred smiled at me, I hesitantly returned it.

Almost instantly the Weird Sisters picked up a new song, Fred turned to me.

"This is a great song," He said at the new song, which was much faster paced, "Come on!" He exclaimed and grabbed my hands in his own. He led me to the edge of the dance floor and started dancing so exuberantly I thought he was going to hit somebody.

"Fred! Oh my god!" I wasn't really mad about it though. He spun me around, let me out, and pulled me back in all while the fast paced song was still playing. I was moving so fast I was getting a headrush, and out of the corner of my eye I saw people moving away from us, in fear of injury probably.

As the song ended I practically fell into Fred from laughing so hard. "What… the hell was that?" I exclaimed through heavy breaths. He was laughing too, and I felt so dizzy I was leaning against him as we left the dance floor towards the drink area.

"That was fun right?" He asked as I finally stood up straight.

"Your methods need some work, but yes, that was fun." I said, grinning. We got butterbeers, and sat down at one of the tables lining the hall, George and Angelina came over to us at the same time, Angelina looking like she'd just run a marathon.

"I'll be right back Vern, okay?" I looked at Fred, confused, but him and George disappeared into the crowd without a second word.

Angelina choked on a sip of her drink, and leaned forward. "George!" She exclaimed, looking at the place they disappeared to, "At least Fred told you he'd be back, as far as I know I just got ditched." She humphed, and leaned back, a sour look on her face.

"They'll be back, usually when one says something it means them both." I said, leaning back in my own chair. We sat for a few minutes, and I saw something that made me put my drink down so fast Angelina grabbed at my arm.

"It's Nick, he sees me." I hissed to her, I saw Nick in the crowd, trying to get in my general direction. I was without Fred at this moment, and I guess he assumed that I had just gone alone or something.

Angelina stood and placed herself strategically in front of me.

"Let's go," I said, we both walked quickly to the Entrance hall, where there was toilets right in the corridor, we walked into them quickly and stood at the sink.

"I wish Alicia was here, she's so much better at avoiding people." I said, shaking my head, as I listened for footsteps on stone outside the door.

"You're good at avoiding people, not certain boys, Alicia has us both beat in the romance department I'm afraid." Angelina concluded.

"Is this childish? Avoiding somebody I don't like because I'm afraid he'll ask me to dance or something?" I said forlornly as we stood by the mirrors. Angelina whipped out our lipsticks that she kept in the inside pocket of her robes.

"No, you don't want his attention, and you've told him. When he doesn't listen, then we have to go to drastic measures." I reapplied my lipstick, and as I did, I couldn't help feeling a rush of appreciation for Angelina being my friend. She was unapologetically herself, and always knew how to make me feel better about my actions.

"I bet Fred and George are looking for us by now." I said, leaning on the wall, watching Angelina fix her braids.

"Serves them right. Have you seen Alicia since dinner?" She asked as we finally left the washroom, making our way back through the elaborately decorated Entrance Hall.

"I thought I saw her dancing earlier." I mused, trying to think back.

Angelina shook her head, "I wonder if she really likes Warrington, if she does, I hope the snakes don't give them too much grief."

"It's not them we should be worried about, it's Fred and George possibly changing him into a canary that we should be planning against." Angelina's face twisted to one of agreement as we were ambushed by one of the exact people we were just talking about.

"Kick up a fuss when we go into the blue, but when you disappear it's totally fine." George said, stopping right in front of us.

"Well I would have told you that we were going to the loo but you weren't there, so whose fault is this?" I retorted, crossing my arms, "Is Fred still in the blue or is he conveniently waiting for me somewhere?" I joked, smiling sweetly.

"He could still be in the blue, you know him." He said, "And it's totally your fault that we weren't here."

"How?" Angelina cut in, her hands flying to her hips.

"Let's just all agree to disagree." George held his hands up in mock peace surrender.

"I don't agree with that." I said, he rolled his eyes and muttered something inaudible under his breath.

"He's in the great hall." I smiled brightly and left them be. I found Fred at the table we were sitting at earlier.

"Where did you go?" I asked sitting down beside him.

"Nice to see you too, we had a business endeavor." He said with a grin, he was being vague on purpose and I wasn't even going to ask more questions, I knew I wouldn't get a straight answer.

"Wanna dance again?" I asked, standing up and holding out my hand, he grabbed on to it and we danced to the Weird Sisters songs in a calmer fashion this time.

"Your buddy Russian Santa is watching us again." Fred murmured into my ear as we spun slowly. My eyes rolled automatically, when would Nick give up.

"Again?" I asked, ignoring the Santa comment, I wasn't going to explain that Santa was technically russian in the first place, so the add on wasn't necessary. I didn't have time.

"Didn't you notice earlier?" We had drifted closer and closer as we were dancing, and we were practically chest to chest, but Fred pushed himself back to look me in the eye. "He's been watching you like a creep this whole damn ball, I knew he had a thing for you, it's kinda getting weird." Fred scoffed, but I was confused.

"I thought I would have noticed him earlier." I said, but as I spun, I found him sitting at a table with another guy from his school, and he was watching me, only periodic glances every so often, but it was there.

"I hate him." I hadn't expected Fred to say that, not with such a bitterness in his voice, it was so unlike him. Fred was funny, sometimes evil, and had a temper, but I never thought he was bitter, I never saw him as quick to judge. But he was so fast to judge Nick I was surprised it didn't happen at light speed.

"He's done nothing wrong, I'll go talk to him right now, see what his problem is." I smiled and drew myself away.

"His problem is that he can't fu-'" He cut himself off, "I'm not gonna finish that." I looked at Fred, daring him to continue, but he didn't, he just closed his mouth and turned away. I didn't hesitate in leaving.

It seemed that Fred and I couldn't not be complicated. We were best friends, but we were something more, but there was a part of me holding back. It was immensely confusing, I couldn't sort out my own emotions.

"Nick?" Nick's friend looked between us, and said something in a different language to him, giving him a slap on the back as he got up and walked away.

"Can ve talk Veronica?" He was blunt, and seemed different to the him I had gone to Hogsmeade with. When I nodded, and he stood up, he stumbled, and I realized what was wrong. I didn't think they were serving alcohol at the ball, since most people here were too young to drink it, but Nick must have gotten a hold of some. It explained the reason for his weird stalker behavior at least.

"Do you want help getting back to your boat?" I asked, he walked out of the Great Hall, into the entrance of the school, and stopped, leaning against the wall, breathing slowly. It looked as if he was trying not to throw up. I strategically placed myself to the side so that if he did vomit, it would not be centered on my beautiful dress robes.

"No, I vill be fine." He said, his speech surprisingly clear for the amount he had seemed to drink. I looked around for somebody that I knew to get me out of this situation, but nobody was there. I had rejected Nick so many times it was shocking he still wanted to talk to me.

"Veronica." He leaned close, and I could smell his breath, I was starting to not like the situation I was in, "Can I kiss you?"

That was my ticket out, "No, no Nick I'm sorry, you can't." I felt bad for him, he was obviously past the point of rational thought, I had given him almost nothing to even like me for, and I thought my feelings in return were quite clear.

"Okay." Apparently okay meant something different where Nick was from, because what he did was not okay. He leaned in faster than I thought he could move, and trapped our faces together.

"Mmph- NO!" I grabbed his chin, and without hesitation I shoved him off.

"But-" He started sadly, holding his chin where I pushed him. I stared at him with a attitude I didn't think I was capable of.

"But what? Why did you do that?" I spat, wiping my mouth, not caring that my lipstick was probably horrifically smudged.

"I thought you liked me." I shook my head, backing away.

"I have told you at least three times that I don't, and no means no! Don't _ever_ do that again okay!?" I turned and walked away, I didn't want to go back to that stupid party, I just felt done.

My first kiss was with some drunk guy that didn't know his boundaries. I knew that since he was drunk I couldn't blame everything on him, and that if he was sober he most certainly would not have tried to make out with me.

It was three hours after the party had first started, but it might as well have been done for me.


	27. Reconciliation

**Chapter 27: Reconciliation**

 **A/N: I said the word dick 10 times in this chapter and honestly I don't know what happened. Oh well, I think it adds an aura.**

I figured it was a testament to my character that every time something bad happened, my only way to cope was to shut everything out. I knew it wasn't fair to anybody but myself, but I couldn't find the will to care.

This was probably why I found myself moping around in a hallway off from the Entrance Hall. I was so damn pissed that I'd let a guy just do that to me, and the more I thought about it, the angrier I got.

Angelina would never let a guy do that, one try and he'd be on the floor with a bloody nose. Same with Alicia, one shady move and she would drop the guy like _that_ , go cold turkey on his ass. But it happened to me, and what did I have to say? Just that he shouldn't have done it, that's it, that's all.

"Stupid!" I hissed under my breath, kicking the floor in distress like a child.

"Vern?" I felt bad for abandoning Fred for the past ten minutes, I guess when Nick went back to the ball without me, that must have looked weird.

"Yeah?" I turned to face him, and he didn't look angry, just neutral, a bit concerned maybe.

"Whatcha doing?" It was Fred's compassion, his unwavering loyalty to his friends, to me. He always wanted was best, and maybe he could be a dick sometimes, but there was so much more to him than his occasional bad decisions.

"Drunk Nick is a dick." I had gone to the bathroom and washed the mess of red lipstick off my face that Nick had made with his obnoxious kissing skills.

"That rhymed." Fred said brightly, when I didn't smile back, his disappeared aswell. "I asked him where you'd went but he just said he didn't know, I figured you hadn't gone far."

"He kissed me, and like, he asked and everything. But I said no, obviously, and he just did it anyway. It feels kinda shitty." I sighed, folding my arms in front of me.

Freds face was still, not a hint of expression flying across it, I knew that meant bad news. His face was always showing his every emotion, I knew he was concentrating very hard on controlling himself.

"Don't get mad, it's fine, I told him to fuck off."

"It's fine?!" Fred's voice exploded in the hallway, echoing back and forth. "That's _really_ far from fine Vern. I thought you just were trying to avoid him more or something."

"How is this not fine? He kissed me, that's it, it's done, and over, and I'm _fine_." I said, my voice slightly rising as well, I didn't want Fred to take this out of hand, I would have eventually come back to the ball anyways, if not just to dance one more time.

"It's not fine because you said no."

"He was drunk!"

"That's no excuse! I've been drunk, and you still know right from wrong." He was getting heated, I could see it, but I was getting heated too.

"He was stumbling! That's how drunk he was! It was just a mistake!" My voice rose again, I felt the anger building inside me.

Fred slammed his hand on the wall, so hard it must have hurt him. " _Stop_ excusing what he did!" His voice was loud enough that I was startled into silence.

"I'm n-" I sighed, unable to finish what I was going to say.

"You are. 'He's drunk, he doesn't know what he's doing.'" He mimicked, "Just stop, it's not fair. He made a dick move. Call him a dick, and give him full credit for that dick move. But don't go making excuses, it's not worth it."

"Yeah, he's a dick." I said, throwing my hands up in the air, "What's that supposed to help, it doesn't help the fact that I feel like a complete idiot. I'm giving him full credit for being a dick but when the dickness was going on, I didn't do anything."

Fred looked confused, "You did nothing, you just stood there while he was a leech?"

"Well, of course not I shoved him off-"

"Exactly! You did what you needed to do!" He interrupted.

"We've lost the point." I brought a hand to my head. "The point of this conversation is gone. Let's agree to agree. Nick is a dick," I saw the hint of a laugh on Fred's face when I said it, "don't say anything about rhyming," I warned, "and I think we're done here."

"Well, it's only about eleven I think, and you're sure you're good?" Fred squinted at the dark clock at the end of the hallway, then turned his gaze to me.

"When does the ball end? And yes, of course I'm good." I replied, I had thought I would be miserable all night, but Fred had improved my mood. He hadn't done anything spectacular, just delivered some common sense into my brain.

"Midnight I think, but we've only danced to a total of about six songs." He held out his hand, I joined mine with it, and we slowly walked back to where I could hear the music.

"Maybe it's because you left to go do your business endeavors in the middle of us getting drinks." He threw me a look.

"And then you and Angie left." He reminded me, and I nodded.

"To occupy ourselves when you were gone of course, all of these things have their reasons." We got back to the Great Hall just as a new song started. There was less people now than before, and people were leaving at a rapid rate. I was surprised that I hadn't seen anybody making out in the hallway I was in.

Angelina and George were across the floor, revolving slowly, Angelina had a huge smile on her face, and they were talking and laughing to themselves. I finally spotted Alicia, she and Warrington were dancing as well, her head on his chest, and his chin on her head. They looked happy, just smiling serenely, I didn't think I had ever even seen Warrington smile.

Fred and I took up the comfortable position of dancing, and talked about nothing as we slowly revolved to the music. I knew he was trying to distract me, so he told me some jokes that he thought I would like.

"Why did the chicken say 'meow, bark, moo'"

"I don't know, why?"

"He was learning foreign languages." I snorted and smiled.

"That was pretty good. Jokes rarely make me laugh though."

"Me either, I just think they're fun." Fred confessed, shrugging his shoulders.

I was incredulous, "Fred Weasley? Fred Weasley, the guy who is known for making people laugh, doesn't think jokes are funny?!"

"Slow down," He rolled his eyes, "I still think they're fun, just most classic jokes are pretty terrible." I nodded my head in agreement, it was true after all.

The bell rang twelve times in succession, and the ball was qualified over. We applauded the Weird Sisters as they took a bow and left, and the students were asked to leave the Great Hall. We mostly mingled again in the Entrance Hall, spilling out into the fairy garden, and around the giant stone fountain of Father Christmas and his reindeer.

Fred and I took an hour to walk around the Black Lake, I had taken my shoes off, and were swinging them in my hand. The occasional rogue fairy from the garden buzzed by, screaming in their high pitched voices and pulling at my hair.

When we arrived back at the castle, almost nobody remained outside, our friends had left, and only a few other people stayed in the rose garden.

"I'm sorry." I looked at Fred weirdly

"The hell are you talking about?" I saw him push back a smile before growing serious again.

"That Nick the Dick was a dick."

"Why are you sorry? I thought we just went over this, it was his fault. Let's not talk about him okay?" I asked, he nodded, and in that moment, we were so close, I looked at him, and he wasn't looking in my eyes, but I knew what he was thinking. It was no surprise what he said next.

"Can I kiss you?"

I didn't say anything back, just stood up on my tiptoes, and had my first _official_ kiss with none other than Fred Weasley. Our mouths fit perfectly, and there was nothing awkward, nothing wrong.

I could hear the gurgle of the fountain, and smell the rosebushes nearby, but most of all, I felt. I felt Fred pressed against me, his hand on my cheek, my hand around the back of his neck. There was no hesitation, and only when we broke apart did it become awkward.

I let out a shy laugh, something I never did, and it was like we couldn't look each other in the eye as we went up to the common room.

Right before we walked into the door, Fred kissed me again, just shortly, and I couldn't stop smiling as I said goodnight. My smile never disappeared for a second, even as I climbed the stairs to my dorm, my shoes still swinging limply in my hand.

 **111111111**

"You were out pretty late with Fred last night." Alicia said on the slow Saturday morning that ensued after the ball.

It was late in the morning, and our dormitory looked like a warzone, we had been too excited to clean up the makeup and hair products that littered the ground when we got ready yesterday. Nothing changed when we all came to bed, except now there were three sets of dress robes and shoes added to the mess.

"I was. How was Warrington?" I purposely avoided the unspoken question, still coming up with a response to it.

"Cas was great, he's actually really nice." Angelina, who hadn't spoken until now, shared a look with me.

"Cas?!" We incredulously said in unison.

Alicia put her hands on her hips, "Cas what? Did you seriously expect me to call him Cassius? I know you lot _have_ to call him by his last name but his girlfriend certainly doesn't."

"Girlfriend?!" We exclaimed again, and Alicia looked even more exasperated.

"Would you stop doing that?"

"Sorry we tend to speak together when you say completely ridiculous things," Angelina said with a scathing tone, "It's been happening quite often recently."

Alicia's eyes rolled so far back you could only see white, "Look, don't make this about Cas, or I'm gonna make it about you."

"Try me, me and George did nothing spectacular, just hung out like some normal friends." Angelina said smugly, leaning back in her desk chair. "Vern?" She passed the conversation on to me.

"Well," I paused, and decided to just go for it, "I actually kissed Fred, but I don't see how that contributes to-"

"Hold up, you did what?" Alicia held her hand out.

"Did I stutter?"

"No, I just-" Alicia stopped, "No actually, that doesn't surprise me at all."

"Me either," Angelina said, a grin on her face, "I think you two are super cute together, you're that best friends and dating couple."

"I said we kissed, nothing about being a couple, we haven't even talked yet." I didn't want to think too much about being a couple, I didn't want to think too much about anything ever, and dating was on that list.

"Well then go talk to him now." Angelina said as if it were the most obvious thing in the whole world.

"I don't know where he is."

But that didn't matter at all, within ten minutes my two best friends had sent me on my way, in exchange that they would clean the dormitory while I was gone.

"This is funny." Fred said a short while later, I had stopped him on a staircase, and I narrowed my eyes as he smiled.

"What?"

"Last christmas we stood in this exact same place." He said wryly, and remembering back, we did.

"Yeah you gave me my christmas present then walked away like a chump." I folded my arms and Fred's eyes widened.

"A chump! I gave you a great present, you weren't complaining."

I grinned and shook my head in defeat, "Nah, I'm just joking, I'm even still wearing it now." I held up my left hand, and wiggled my middle finger, the gold glimmering in the soft light. Fred smiled as he looked at it.

"I should have waited, seemed weird last year, would have been better to give it to you this year." I nodded, and we fell into silence.

It was just like it was before last night, nothing able to push through the barrier of awkwardness.

"About last night." I tried, but it felt wrong.

"Last night was great." Fred said, nodding, not looking up from a fixed point somewhere off in the distance.

We couldn't spit it out, it was like neither of us wanted to admit what was there, well, I know I didn't, but I wasn't so sure about Fred.

"It was." This was painfully awkward, and it made my neck, chest, and cheeks burn with the familiar redness I knew was arriving.

"You know, last night, you looked really nice." A compliment sounded weird coming from Fed's mouth, but it was sincere nonetheless. The red exploded through my upper body as I blushed a shade that would rival my dress robes.

"Thanks, you did too." It was weird, and I hated it. Why couldn't I just be normal, why couldn't he? Why couldn't he pick fun and crack jokes just like he did all the time? Why couldn't I roll my eyes like I always did, and pick fun back?

It was new and it was frightening, finally acting on my feelings, I hated it.

"Do you just wanna…" I trailed off not knowing what to say.

But Fred did, "Yeah." he answered my unasked question and stepped forward, closing that impenetrable distance between us. Our lips met for the third time, and it was just like the first all over again.

That same feeling as we stood there so close. The nerves, the happiness, all rolled into one and making my heart beat a million times per minute.

"I really like you." We broke apart but were still as close as possible, I found myself looking up into his bright blue eyes.

"How much?" He asked with his trademark smirk.

I grinned back, "Indefinitely."

"That's a big word."

"Necessary." I stepped back, missing the feeling of him against me already.

I wrung my hands behind my back, inside I was exploding with happiness, but outside I'm sure I looked awkward and nervous.

"Are we in a relationship?" I asked, hating how formal I sounded. It was Fred, I had to remind myself of that, to just be myself.

"I'd say so." He shoved his hands into his pockets and I spotted the hint of a blush coloring his pale, freckled cheeks.

"That's cool, really cool. Gotta say see ya though, I've got something very important to do." I said, smiling brightly as I ran back up the staircase, leaving Fred standing there. A very confused expression was all I saw as I whipped around the corner, but there was something there that wasn't there before. I liked it.

 **1111111111**

"You guys aren't gonna believe this shit." I slammed by hands down on the desk in our dormitory, Alicia and Angelina turned their heads in my direction from where they were stuffing something in the wardrobe in the corner.

"You're currently dating a certain Fred Weasley?" Alicia said, sounding slightly out of breath as she leaned against the box she was trying to stuff into the furniture.

"Cleaning isn't just violently stuffing everything into a closet." I said, slightly bitter that Alicia read me so easily.

"Try us." Angelina said, and with one final shove of her shoulder, the box that I'm sure contained our dress robes slid into the wardrobe, and with a flourish she closed the door and locked it.

"I wonder what's gonna happen when we open that thing, everything'll probably just fall right out." Alicia said sourly.

"Mass panic." I looked at them expectantly. "What, nothing more? No great celebrations for Veronica B- _Smith_ getting her very first boyfriend?"

Angelina shrugged, not noticing my slip up, "We saw it coming really, also considering you told us you made out with him last night I'm not awfully surprised."

"You guys are hopeless."

 **111111111**

The rest of the holidays passed in quiet, most people were in that after christmas haze, and before I knew it, I was getting dressed in my uniform again, and heading off to classes. Winter had arrived in full fledge, and there was more than just brutal wind and some light sprinkles of snow. In fact, we had been dumped with about a foot of it in the past day.

"You guys seen this?" Fred said to me and Angelina before Defence started. He had come over from where he was sitting with George in the back corner. Moody wasn't here yet, and while we payed attention to him while he was here, it was free game in the precious few minutes he wasn't on an early morning.

"Seen what, the paper?" Angelina questioned, looking at what Fred had crumpled in his hand, he put it down on our desk just as Moody arrived.

"If his bullshit eye catches us reading this we're dead." Angelina hissed as I pulled the paper under our desk and Fred went back to his seat.

"I'll take my chances." I muttered, and as I read the article, my mood got worse and worse.

"This is horrible." Angelina mumbled as I reached the bottom of the article.

"What's so horrible Johnson?" Moody's rough voice barked from the front of the class, I jumped about a mile out of my seat.

"I let you keep reading that because at least you were quiet!" He rasped, "I assume you're finished now."

"Uh, yes, yes of course, sorry Sir." I said quietly, and slid the paper down into my bag.

"So what's it about, haven't seen the paper myself this morning." Moody surprisingly said, he hobbled over to us, his wooden leg making a dull thud every time it hit the stone floor. I knew he was an auror, and that being near him was probably one of the safest places to be in the castle, save with Dumbledore or McGonagall, but he terrified me.

The rest of our class looked to where we were with wide eyes, obviously it wasn't just me who was irrationally scared.

"It's a pretty horrible article about Ha- Professor Hagrid." I said, even though giving Hagrid an official title sounded weird, he was always just Hagrid.

"It was written by Rita Skeeter." Angelina added.

"Hmph." Moody made a noise that sounded awfully like a growl. "Awful woman. Anyways, non verbal spells!" He shouted, officially starting the lesson, "If you haven't learned them by now you might as well get your will in order!"

We got up and began to practice our non verbal spells. Mine weren't half bad, but I couldn't for the life of myself shake that scared feeling that overcame me when Moody spoke directly to me, and with a shared look, I knew Angelina could feel it too.


	28. The Rats in the Caves

**Chapter 28: The Rats in the Caves**

Fred was a charmer. He always had been, he knew exactly what to say to make somebody like him, or to make somebody feel nice about themselves. This whole trait was magnified by a hundred when I found myself becoming his girlfriend. Even though we were dating, he never stopped flirting, almost more than before, and it opened my eyes to how often he had flirted before we were in a relationship.

On a different note, us sixth years were offered apparition classes, the fee was high, but somehow almost everybody managed to get in. Only the first two lessons happened in the month of January. Nothing too exciting happened, just a bunch of sixteen year olds spinning into each other for an hour every other week.

That's a lie, one exciting thing happened. George suffered an unfortunate splinch in which his left ear travelled into his hoop, with his body remaining out of it. There was a moment of silence before George started swearing so violently and loudly that I thought McGonagall would ban him from future lessons.

Fred and I kept it low key for Valentines day. While Angelina and Alicia pressured us into alone time, neither of us really felt like doing anything special in particular.

The end of February arrived quite quickly and before long I found myself bundled against the harsh wind as I walked down to the second task. This one took place in the middle of the lake, we got seats packed in the middle of the stands that were on the edge of the water.

This was a narrow part of the lake, and we could easily see the judges across it to where they sat behind the champions who were lined up on the bank.

"This isn't going to be very entertaining is it." Fred said, leaning forward and looking into the lake, I copied him and realized that he was right. The water of the Black Lake was in fact black, and the gray sky reflecting off the surface made it impossible to see what would be happening under.

"Who said they'd be going into it?" George asked from Fred's other side and I rolled my eyes.

"What do you think this is George a rowing competition?" I said sarcastically, turning back to the champions in time to see Harry finally arrive, sprinting down the shore and screeching to a stop just in time for Bagman to start commentating.

"Our Champions will have exactly one hour to retrieve what they have lost!" He finished as the champions all dived into the lake but Harry, who instead waded into the water chewed something, grabbed at his throat, then submerged himself without a second thought.

"Bless him." Fred said and shook his head as the ripples where Harry disappeared dispersed.

It was very uneventful to just sit there for almost an hour without seeing anything. When the champions came up the judges would find out how they retrieved whatever was lost and award them points on how fast they were. But until that moment, there was just close to a thousand students from three different schools sitting and watching a still lake on a very cold day.

Something very interesting happened at about forty five minutes in. With a cloud of bubbles, Cedric Diggory and somebody that looked like the Ravenclaw seeker Cho Chang emerged from the water, and began swimming towards the judges.

There was quiet for a moment as everybody realized that what the champions were searching for in the bottom of the lake were _actual students,_ but then we exploded into applause, for Cedric had most likely gotten first place.

Fleur came a short while later, but she was coughing and spluttering, and brought no person with her. Cedric would probably be in the lead, but points weren't being announced yet, and he was currently sitting wrapped in towels with Cho, but Fleur hadn't gotten anybody, so would probably be much lower.

Krum came about five minutes after that, carrying a groggy looking Hermione up to the shore.

"This is wild." Alicia said, clapping for Krum as he pulled himself onto shore after pushing Hermione forward.

"I hope Harry's okay." I tried as hard as I could to peer into the dark lake.

"Well I don't think they'll let him die." Fred reassuringly said.

"That helps so much."

"There still two people down there, cause that french girl never got hers right?" George said, leaning forward to look at me.

"Why would I know?" He shrugged and looked back to the lake. All of a sudden, the water started rippling, and almost everybody stood up to get a better look, it was worth it. Harry burst through the surface, dragging not one person, but two. One I recognized as the ginger haired Ron, but the other had long silvery hair that sparkled and shone even while wet. It looked to be Fleur's sister.

"They put my brother under the lake for an hour? Brilliant!" Fred roared over the noise as we all cheered for Harry.

The creepy looking merpeople, who I had never seen before now, surrounded Harry, Ron and the girl, who wasted no time getting wrapped in blankets as well.

Dumbledore leaned down and seemed to talk with the merpeople for a while before standing back up to presumably announce the marks.

The marks went as followed, Fleur got twenty five out of fifty, for at least she tried, and used a good charm, Cedric got forty seven, almost perfect, Krum got forty points, and most surprising was Harry. He didn't seem to do it right, and was well outside the time limit, but he was still awarded forty five points.

Whoever could add quickly in their head knew that adding up the points from this challenge and the last, the points evened out so that Harry and Cedric were tied for first place.

We all cheered for the champions as Madam Pomfrey shepherded them back up to the castle, and we followed at a much slower pace.

I was surprised when I saw a large black owl coming out of the sky, and instantly knew what it was about. I had never sent the owl out with a letter when I first saw him, but I had visited him many times just to show him affection, I had decided on naming him Ajax, he seemed to like it.

Ajax landed on my outstretched arm, scaring Fred, who jumped back and looked from me to owl several times.

"Is that yours?" He asked, a confused expression on his face. I guess I had never told him that I got an owl, it would be too hard to explain how, as he probably didn't know that I also now had a small fortune in my bank account. I was probably keeping too many secrets about my life, oh well.

"Yeah, this is Ajax, he was a gift." I said, not lying just yet.

"Was it from Nick because I swear to god-" He started, the jealousy rearing its head.

"No he's not, he was from-" I hesitated for no more than half a second as I thought up something, "Angie." Angelina turned and looked at me, but I gave her the subtlest of nods, mixed with a wink, and she knew to play along.

"You got Vern an owl?" Fred asked her incredulously.

Angelina was behind for only a moment, "Yeah, I figured she could start sending me and Alicia post over the summers." She shrugged, and I had to applaud her for going along with my lie so easily.

"They're pretty expensive." He said, not quite buying it yet.

"My great aunt died recently, so I got a bit of money." Angelina answered, nodding her head a bit awkwardly.

"I'm sorry?" Fred looked extremely confused with everything that was going on, and I couldn't help laughing a bit. Going on my tiptoes, I gave him a peck on the cheek.

"I'm going to go respond to this, okay?" I said, and Fred nodded, but Angelina gave me the look. I knew that between now and when I next saw her my number one priority would be to think up a plausible lie that she would believe about why she just had to lie her ass off.

"Look Ajax, your great, I love you, but you can't just fly to me whenever you please." I muttered to him as I double stepped up staircases until I got to the relative safety of the owlery.

 _Your next Hogsmeade visit, meet behind shrieking shack at 11, bring food_

I felt the pang of worry in my chest, Sirius was here, and he was out in public. I wanted him to stay safe, and I had no idea why he would even dare to come this close.

 **111111111**

It was now March, and the whole area had become very windy as the warm spring air was blown in from the south. Ajax came back from my agreement to met with Sirius empty handed, but looking very windblown and worse for wear.

I lied to Angelina that night, the amount of lying I was doing was becoming a problem, one slip-up could cause the bridge to come crashing down. But I had to be good at it, for if anyone was even suspicious that anything was dramatically different they were doing a remarkably good job of hiding it.

I told Fred I would have to leave at eleven from Hogsmeade, he knew I was hiding something, just like I knew he was hiding something with the way he was always trying to talk with Ludo Bagman. But there was some kind of unspoken agreement between us. Maybe it wasn't healthy to keep such things from each other, but I just couldn't tell him about Sirius, not yet.

I knew he did sort-of believe what I was telling him about bookstores and sales, it was the fact I insisted he didn't need to come along that sparked suspicion.

I walked out of the Three Broomsticks with five minutes until I was supposed to meet Sirius. I climbed the hill to the shrieking shack, luckily there was nobody around, and I clutched onto the package of food I had from my early lunch. As I rounded to the back on the low building, I saw what I had been looking for.

A large shaggy black dog was sitting, looking out over the town of Hogsmeade that continued out past the main street.

"Snuff?" I didn't want to use his real name, somebody could always be listening, or maybe I was just paranoid.

He turned and began to wag his tail when he saw me, he gave a soft bark and indicated with his head that I should follow him. The journey seemed easy at first, we walked through side streets and past houses, I wasn't wearing my uniform so it would just look like a teenager and her dog. Sirius took me all the way to the foot of the mountain that overlooked the small wizarding town.

"You're really gonna make me climb that aren't you." I said bitterly, Sirius gave his wheezy laugh bark and just started up the boulder strewn path. He found it easy enough, having four legs and everything, but I was soon out of breath as we kept going higher and higher.

Finally he disappeared into a crack in the mountain, and I followed, just laying down on the cool floor for a moment.

"Should take up running." Said a scratchy voice I had only heard a few times in my life.

"Excuse you, acting like that was easy, I wouldn't be surprised if the air was thinner all the way up here."

"Hmm. You should say hello to Buckbeak, you know what hippogriffs are like."

I pulled myself up off the ground and put down the food I brought before bowing low to Buckbeak, who was in the back corner of the cave. It took him a moment, but he soon bowed back, and I turned to get my first look at Sirius.

It wasn't a good one. He was still in the same prison robes, and he was skinnier and had longer, more matted hair than before. His face was unshaven, and while it looked like he had somehow commandeered a pair of scissors, there was still long and patchy stubble lining his cheeks and jaw.

"What are you doing here Sirius." I said, my joking manor gone.

"It's to do with this Triwizard Tournament, Harry has been keeping in touch, and I just have to be close. Something's fishy, I know it."

"Tetrawizard, and of course something's fishy, a fourteen year old got his name entered by someone who probably wants him dead." I snapped before I could stop myself, just overrun with emotion. A part of me felt betrayed, because of course Sirius wasn't just here to see his daughter, it was like last year all over again. Harry came first. I tried to push those feelings down, and bottle them up where they would never see the light of day, but it was hard. Standing here in this cave, with Sirius standing right infront of me, it was harder than ever.

I knew Sirius liked me just as much as Harry, but when I got angry and jealous so easily it was difficult to tell myself that.

"Did you just say tetrawizard?" Sirius asked, incredulous. He picked up the package of food and began eating the bread rolls.

"Yeah. My friends and I came up with it, cause there are four champions not three."

Sirius chuckled, "I get it don't worry."

"I don't know what's happening, I'm too far removed from it all, I've got my problems." I muttered, settling down on the cold floor beside Buckbeak, petting his head.

"What are your problems?" He asked, sitting down beside me. I definitely wasn't that comfortable with him, and had to fight back the urge to flinch, though I did lean away ever so slightly.

"Normal stuff, nothing bad." I said, picking the skin by my fingernails. "You should talk to Harry, he could probably give you the inside shit on what this whole tournaments about. But he's been doing really well in the challenges, he's tied for first place right now after two tasks."

"Really? That's good at least." The way Sirius ate was very fast and dog-like, it made me wonder how much time he actually spent as a human these days.

"So what's fishy about the tournament? Is it Professor Moody? Because he's the shadiest guy I know at this school, apart from maybe the Durmstrang Headmaster-"

"It's the headmaster, he used to be a Death Eater, I know that things have been stirring with Voldemort's followers recently." I didn't flinch when he said the name, somebody who was raised with muggles for as long as I could remember, the name didn't instill the same fear within me that it seemed to with wizard born people who'd spent their whole lives being afraid of it.

"A Death Eater? The people who were at the World Cup a few weeks ago?" I asked, recounting the terrifying night.

"Yeah, he lied just like the rest of them, claimed the imperious curse to save his own skin." Sirius looked at me as he started eating the sandwich I brought, I could see that he had left the chicken wrapped up by the far wall, maybe he was saving it for later. "I heard about the World Cup, were you there?"

"Yeah, me and Harry have mutual friends in the Weasley family, and we were all there with Hermione. Some scary shit that was." A trace of concern passed over his face.

"You're alright though?"

I nodded, "Yeah, we waited it out in the forest before they set off that charm in the sky, only then did everybody scatter and we could get back."

Sirius sighed and shook his head, looking incredibly tired. "So who are you friends with, tell me their names." I was taken aback, but hesitantly started with Fred and George, I neglected to tell him I was dating Fred, I didn't think our relationship was ready for that.

The time slipped away, and I told Sirius about everything, he wanted to know everything, it was question after question, but I answered them all. It took a while but we became more comfortable with each other. I told him about all my friends, my classes, what I liked to do, and any funny stories I came across on the way.

Whenever Sirius laughed at something I said I was reminded how much I liked his smile, how young and carefree he looked when the stress and tiredness was chased off his face.

"So what do you do here? Like how do you get food?" I asked.

"Well sometimes I can steal food from the main street, but most of the time it's just rats. People get suspicious awfully fast when a dog steals food twice a day." Sirius said, and while what he said seemed gross and terrible, his face still had a normal expression on it.

"I'm gonna go okay?" I finally said when we had reached a lull, I stood up and brushed off my jeans.

"I'll walk you out, you better say goodbye to Buckbeak though, he seems to like you." I pet the hippogriff a few times before exiting the cave. Sirius followed me as a dog, and we made our way back down the the mountain and through the streets of Hogsmeade.

We stopped just outside of the main street, and he let me pat his head before taking aff at a lope back towards the cave.

I thought about a lot of things on the walk back to the castle, mainly about Sirius. Today we talked about me, and I still knew nothing about his life or who he was, but it would have to wait. He had told me I could still exchange letters with him through Ajax, but that visiting would be hard considering that there were only a few Hogsmeade visits a year, and probably only one more before the end of the year.

It was a little sad that things were so bad for him, I wished it could be better, that I could spend my summers with him, no offense to the the Weasleys, I just wanted to know my dad.

It made me wistful to think of how it all could have been, had everything not gone the way it did.


	29. Rumours Rumours

**Chapter 29: Rumours Rumours**

I felt bad for Hermione. Rita Skeeter was just as Moody had said, an awful woman. Her story about Hermione, Krum, and Harry was outrageous, and while everybody knew that it was fake, some people still had to act like it wasn't.

It was reaching the end of March, and as the rest of the snow and frost fell away, Angelina began pestering Alicia and I to go down to the quidditch pitch with her, she didn't want to get rusty. We had made our way down to the pitch that night to find it closed. That was the strangest part of it all, the pitch was never closed.

Games weren't typically played and practices usually weren't held in the dead of winter, but the pitch was always open, even if it was buried under two meters of snow. The whole area was blocked off, and what looked to be a ministry regulation wizard waved us off before we could get close enough to see what was going on.

"What the hell are they doing down there?" Angelina exclaimed as we made the trek back up to the castle after being turned away.

"Gotta be something about the tournament, it's taken over the school." Alicia shook her head and Angelina grumbled some more.

"First we can't play games, but now we can't even practice." Angelina's mood had taken a nosedive as we entered the common room and settled down.

Alicia took her leave shortley from our conversation she was going to go down to the library to meet Warrington. Against everybody's expectations, they were still dating, and had at least calmed down from making out at every opportunity.

"Vern?" Fred interrupted Angelina's tirade, and I mouthed a quick sorry to her as I got up and followed him out of the common room.

"What do you need?" I asked as we walked down the hallway, it was late evening, but not past curfew, and while the halls were mostly empty, a student or two could be spotted.

"What I'm not allowed to spend time with my girlfriend?" Fred joked as we made our way down a series of moving staircases.

"It's not that at all." I protested and shoved his shoulder lightly. "It is your birthday soon though, big seventeen."

"I just can't wait to do magic all the time, imagine how useful that will be." He grinned, his eyes far away in the moment.

"What do you want? I have to get you something." Fred shrugged, seemingly nonplussed.

"No you don't, I can't really think of anything I'd like, I do have a prank planned though."

"Exciting, what is it?" I had always liked to help out in Fred and George's fun when I could.

"Well it's nothing."

"What?"

"Literally nothing, me and George are going to do nothing all day and nobody is going to relax at all." I laughed out loud, imagining the pandemonium that would occur if Fred and George did actually nothing all day.

That's exactly what happened, as April Fools Day washed by in a rainstorm, nothing particularly exciting happened the entire time. But every teacher who had a class with Fred or George was on edge, the only person who didn't give them shifty looks all lesson was Moody.

"Mr. Weasley, I must ask, what tragedy will ultimately befall this school before the day is done?" I snorted into my hand at the end of Transfiguration as McGonagall lost all patience with Fred.

"Oh, well absolutely nothing Professor, of course." He flashed her his most charming smile as we left the room.

The Easter Holidays were a bright sunny week interrupting a rather rainy month, though most everybody had so much homework that we didn't enjoy it much. I didn't even have exams at the end of this year but the work and I was receiving from seven NEWT level classes was making me wish I was still in fifth year, even OWLs would be better than perpetual studying.

I had sent more letters to Sirius, but hadn't been able to visit due to the slight problem that there were no Hogsmeade visits any time soon. He was nervous about the final task of the tournament, and seemed to be getting increasingly agitated with his writing style, the letters were rather spiky, the parchment ripped in some places, like over the cross of a t or the dot of an i.

I hadn't seen anything particularly suspicious, but lying was becoming my fatal flaw. I had created such an elaborate web of lies with my best friends and my boyfriend that it took a conscience effort to keep everything in order. Whether it was Angelina lying about buying me Ajax for my benefit, or myself lying to Fred about how my correspondents were just _Witch Weekly_ copies, it was never ending.

Fred and George had been obsessed with money lately on a different train, it seemed to be all they talked about was getting startup funds for their joke business. The products they sold on Saturday nights in the common room were quite good, but they weren't very expensive, and couldn't be making that much revenue.

"You guys won a bunch of money off that Bagman guy at the World Cup though?" I asked one evening as we all sat around the fire.

Fred's eyes darted around for a second before they rested on me, a trace of unease in them. "Yeah but forty galleons isn't enough to build a shop, we need more." George nodded fervently, and yet again, I wondered what they could be hiding.

June bombarded the castle with a storm of excitement for the third task. I was excited about what it would be and who would win, the intoxicating aura of the castle getting to me.

 _You must be ready for whatever is coming, expect odd things for the third task._

The message from Sirius was odd, and a little frightening, I tucked it into my back pocket as I left the owlery, going down the stairs slowly, deep in thought.

The morning of the third task, the Gryffindor table was alight with conversation, Fred was talking excitedly over my head with Lee about what he thought it would be, and the morning seemed to fly away. Mrs Weasley and Bill had come to watch Harry, which I thought was very nice, and we had a lovely lunch at the Gryffindor table.

Mrs Weasley had become rather chummy with me after Fred and I announced we were dating, Ron mimed gagging into a napkin when she squealed in excitement.

"I don't see ickle Ronniekins getting a girlfriend now do I?" George asked a bit snidely.

"No he's too busy preparing to be prefect next year." Fred added in, and Ron's face went a deep shade of red.

"That's not entirely bad thing you know." Hermione said quietly, and Bill nodded.

"I was prefect, and head boy." He said.

"Yeah but you're cool." George shrugged.

As we walked down to the quidditch pitch, I though back to Sirius's odd letter last week. I hadn't sent anything back and he hadn't contacted me again, which was odd, he usually made a point of sending me a letter every week.

As we found seats, I scanned any corners of the arena for a large black dog.

"This better not look like this next year." Angelina said with a hint of bitterness. The quidditch pitch had been transformed into a massive maze, twenty foot hedges dominated the field, and even from our elevated position we couldn't see more than about three turns in, and even then, the maze was shifting. I watched hedges disintegrate and regrow instantly, closing and opening new paths every minute or so.

The summer night wasn't exactly cold, but it wasn't very warm either, and we could see the champions lined up and ready to enter the maze. Lanterns were lit around the edge of the pitch, illuminating the rather dark night, but the middle of the maze had no light at all, and looked quite foreboding as the evening got darker as the sky turned from purple to blue.

"May I welcome you to the third and last task of the Triwizard Tournament!" Bagmans voice echoed around the stands.

"Tetrawizard." George said a bit grudgingly.

"Shut up!" Angelina hissed.

"In first place, tied, we have Mr. Cedric Diggory and Mr. Harry Potter of Hogwarts School!" We cheered so loudly I was sure the village of Hogsmeade heard it.

"And then we have Mr. Viktor Krum of the Durmstrang Institute in second place, and Miss Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons Academy in third!" The still got a decently loud applause from the hundreds of students who had come to watch.

Cedric and Harry disappeared at the first whistle, we could just see them dart into the maze from the good spots we had, since we were sitting with Harry's chosen 'relatives'.

The second and third whistles sent Krum and Fleur into the maze and suddenly, it was very quiet. The champions had to send red sparks if they were in danger, and we heard quiet roars and bushes rustling. Nobody spoke at all, everybody had an ear tuned to the maze.

The first sound to shatter the still night time air was a faint scream. No red sparks shot up, and while I could see the judges look around, none of them did anything. The scream had been high pitched, I guessed it was Fleur, the time continued, and I felt a strong sense of foreboding.

A shower of red sparks shot up from where the scream had sounded. A seemingly magical force acted over the area, and all of a sudden Fleur appeared in the courtyard where the champions had been before. Madam Pomfrey shot over to her still form, and woke her up, she seemed to curse as she realized where she was, and rather grumpily stood with the rest of her classmates.

The next bout of red sparks came quicker, and the stunned body of Viktor Krum was next out of the maze, he was woken up too, and looked much more confused than Fleur had. He kept shaking his head and rubbing his eyes, like he had just woken up from a really good nap.

It was quite a while before something happened again, no more red sparks were shot up, and Harry and Cedric remained fully in the maze, people even began to talk as the mood became a bit more jovial. First years were passing out chocolate frogs and bottles of butterbeer, and we really started to relax.

All of a sudden that was shattered, in an almighty rush of noise, a silver cup materialized about five feet in the air, holding onto the handle was none other than Harry Potter, and holding on to Harry, was Cedric. The three beings crashed into the courtyard and we all stood up, laughing and cheering we applauded our two champions for winning. I think I might have even kissed Fred I was so in the moment.

But it all changed, I looked at Cedric and saw his blank eyes. "He's dead! Cedric's dead!" A chorus of noise reached us and Fred dropped my hand. I screamed in shock, my hand over my mouth as I stared at the commotion going on below.

 _Dead?!_ He couldn't be dead, but he was blocked from my view as Dumbledore and the Minister and countless others I could barely see swarmed around Harry and him on the ground.

Cedric couldn't be dead, he was too nice. I scolded my own foolishness, but couldn't think of how the gentlemanly guy in my year, who'd helped me up at the World Cup, could be dead. It just _wasn't possible_.

It was pandemonium, people were running, Mrs Weasley was sobbing, and Bill held onto her, trying to comfort her in some way while his eyes darted around, seemingly looking for the hidden dangers.

"We have to go!" I yelled to Fred, who seemed rather panicked. I could describe Fred in many words, not all of them very nice. But he was never panicked, never fazed, always had a joke to get him out of something, a second path to provide his escape. But his eyes, they were just dull, unseeing.

People weren't allowed to leave the pitch, the only people I saw leave were Harry, Moody, Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape. I heard more screaming, a woman's scream so loud I knew it must be Cedric's mother.

The confusion was cut by none other than Professor McGonagall herself, I had no idea how much time had passed but the sky was pitch black now, the moon and lanterns casting a pale light on everything.

"Ms Smith, I was instructed by Professor Dumbledore to have you fetch a large black dog from Hagrid's pumpkin patch, and take it to Dumbledore's office, the password is _Cockroach Cluster_." I couldn't say anything, I looked from Fred to McGonagall, and she seemed to understand. "He'll know soon enough." Her mouth was in a thin line, it must have been the most emotion I had seen on the stern professors face in, well, ever.

"Okay." She nodded once, and disappeared into the crowd, I followed her, my hand pulling Fred along. Mcgonagall let us out of the pitch, past ministry officials, and walked briskly up into the castle. I could hear Fred shouting at me, his face in front of mine, trying to get me to look at him. Yelling at me to ask what was going on, and where we were going. But I couldn't answer, and as I started to where Sirius would be, I knew everything had changed.


	30. Lies Have Consequences

**Chapter 30: Lies have Consequences**

"Veronica _look at me_!" It was the hand on my shoulder, heavily rested against me, pressing down, I finally looked at Fred. My panicked grey eyes staring into his surprisingly calm blue ones.

"What are we doing?" He asked, his expression intense, focused.

"Finding a dog."

"Why?"

"He's going to help." I didn't leave room for explaining as I took off across the lawn towards Hagrid's pumpkin patch, running as fast as I could. I was quite fast when I put my mind to it, and the adrenaline rushing through my system fueled my methodical footfalls on the soft ground. I could hear Fred behind me, running equally as fast.

I skidded to the pumpkin patch, and startled a lying down Snuff into a standing position.

He barked once. "Sirius, we have to go."

"Who?" Fred said in confusion, I motioned for him and Sirius to follow and ran towards the castle. Fred's footbeats followed again, and a four beat running sound was added. I knew Snuff could run faster than I could, be he stayed just at my heels, obviously trusting me to lead him somewhere.

Fred overtook me somewhere up the castle stairs, and by the time we got to the gargoyle that guarded Dumbledore's office, all three of us were panting and wheezing.

"Cockroach… Cluster…" I breathed out to the gargoyle, who jumped aside as we all stepped onto the staircase.

We walked into the empty office, and Dumbledore's phoenix blinked slowly. Sirius transformed back into human, and Fred gave a yell, stumbling back as he regarded Sirius with wide eyes.

"You alright?" Sirius ignored Fred, and stepped close to me, holding my shoulders with both hands.

"Cedric is dead, something was wrong in the maze, something about Voldemort, Dumbledore wanted you here." Sirius nodded, and he actually enveloped me in a hug. Something I had never experienced from him, and rarely from anybody else.

He didn't smell too nice, and his matted hair brushed my face. But it was comforting, my father's arms around me, helping me when something so bad had happened just a half an hour before.

"You two better go down to the hospital wing, I feel as if we'll end up there soon enough." I nodded drawing away, embarrassed to feel a hot tear track on my cheek. I almost never cried.

"Who are you?" Fred asked, it had shocked me that he remained silent even until then.

"Sirius Black." He said it proudly, almost defiantly. Fred looked very taken aback, and an almost scared look came to his face, he drew his wand, and Sirius had the nerve to actually roll his eyes.

"Fred he's my dad." The words came out before I could stop them. I was quiet, but Fred stopped dead still.

"What." It wasn't even a question he was so stunned.

"We'll see you later Sirius." Sirius nodded once, and raised his hand.

"Excuse you-"

"Come on Fred."

Sirius watched with a calculating look, but said nothing as we left.

 **111111111**

"What in the everlasting fuck was that about." Fred said rather quietly as we made our way down the seven levels to where the hospital wing was on the main floor.

"I think you heard. Sirius Black is my dad." I said shortly, not feeling the need to talk. Wanting more to figure out what exactly had transpired on this night.

I could feel Fred's eyes on my face as we rounded to yet another staircase. "Okay, I can believe that actually, how long have you known?"

"End of last school year." This is when Fred lost it. He stopped stock still.

"You didn't think to tell your best friend and boyfriend?" He obviously meant himself.

"Oh I'm sorry, I was just thinking how well that conversation would have gone when he was still a freshly escaped mass murderer."

"Yeah, speaking of that, he is a murderer, your dad killed thirteen people-"

"No he didn't. Peter Pettigrew killed thirteen people and blamed it on Sirius." Fred stayed quiet as I recounted the entire plot of last year.

"Your dad and his mates created the Marauders Map?"

"You got so angry, but that's what you get out of this?" I spat, astounded.

Fred rolled his eyes, "If that wasn't the plot of some bad radio program you heard one time."

I got in Fred's face, feeling quite tall and mighty even though I was a good five inches shorter than him. "It wasn't." He seemed unnerved.

"Fine. It's true. Why didn't you tell me."

"Tell me about what you had with Ludo Bagman."

"He gave me and George leprechaun gold after the World Cup, we had no money, he went off the map like a con artist and we've been broke the whole year, our life savings gone." It didn't surprise me for some reason.

"Okay, I don't blame you for not telling me. It seemed like the less people knew the better."

"Unbelievable. Getting cheated out of some gold is a lot different than finding your father after fifteen years of orphanry."

I shook my head, and finally continued walked down the stairs, picking up a quicker pace.

"You can't run away."

"You _need_ to realize that there was sense about me not telling you!"

"How much more have you lied to me about hmm?"

I lost my patience, "Oh okay let me get my list. That parrot at the World Cup was corresponding with me and Sirius. He actually bought Ajax for me too, so that we could talk easier. That time I left in Hogsmeade I actually spent my afternoon with him, and not at some stupid bookstore sale!" My voice rose with every word, and I was yelling by the time we were finished. The school was thankfully still empty, who knew what was happening at the maze.

"I can't do this."

"Do what."

"This." He indicated between us with his hand, looking sort of sad. "I can't deal with this level of mistrust. Maybe we were better as best friends."

I felt very sad, it weighed down on me, as it dawned that Fred was breaking up with me. "Yeah, maybe we were." I left, not saying anything more as I descended the final steps towards the hospital wing.

I cursed inwardly. _This is what happens when you lie about everything Vern._ I barely registered Mrs Weasley fussing over me or Harry coming down with Sirius in dog form again.

I stayed there, sitting beside Sirius on the floor through the ensuing chaos of Dumbledore and the Minister of Magic. It didn't seem to register what had happened with Moody and Voldemort coming back. The level of trickery sounded like last year all over again. I felt dull and empty, with a quiet sense of rage brewing at my current situation.

Voldemort was back, there was now no stopping the second war. I was what I was because of a war, no parents and no family, and now it was happening again. Maybe I had a better support system, I had my dad, but not my best friend.

 **1111111111**

I had only dated Fred for about six months, but it was my first time dating anybody. Maybe that's why as I sat at the commemoration feast for Cedric, I couldn't stop thinking about him.

How little it all meant, to him, or to me, I wasn't sure. We had acted like nothing happened, back to friends in less than a moment. We must not have been _really_ dating, shouldn't it have hurt more? Or did the romance novels I found in the back of the library on boring nights lie to me?

The mood had been solemn for several days, and the leaving feast brought all of that together. I had no idea who won the house cup, it didn't seem to matter. The Great Hall had drapes of black on the walls and as we all left after a speech that made me feel more sad than ever, I was glad the school year was over.

It was bright, sunny, and not too hot the day we left Hogwarts. I loaded my trunk into the train with some help from Angelina, and just like we always did, we sat together. Angelina, Alicia, Lee, Fred, George and I. In that sense nothing had changed.

Ajax swept to my shoulder an instant before I was supposed to get onto the train. I hastily opened his cage and he flew in, I noticed he had a letter, and grabbed it before closing the door of the cage. I had a feeling who it was from.

 _Vern,_

 _You're not going to the Weasley's this summer, behind this letter, is a piece of paper that you will use when you get to your destination. On the back of this letter is a copy of a map you will use to get there. Under no circumstances can anybody see the piece of paper apart from you, not even your best friend. You'll probably stay there the whole summer, when you turn 17 you can get your apparition licence and that should help. I'll see you there._

 _Snuff_

I turned the letter over and saw a list of directions from Kings Cross to what seemed to be the middle of a muggle neighborhood. I didn't look at the piece of paper in the back of the envelope, but tucked it away, remembering how nobody was supposed to see it.

As the train rumbled to life, I had an offhand thought, _where was I going?_

 **A/N: This is the end of the first part, the second will be up on my profile at the same time that this chapter goes up so keep an eye out for it. It will be titled** _ **Unmasked Unity**_


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